Redskins Alex Smith credited with building Chiefs championship culture

The Redskins didn’t enjoy any success on Super Bowl Sunday, but one Redskins player was apparently integral in helping the Chiefs reach the pinnacle of professional football.

There’s a chance Washington Redskins quarterback Alex Smith won’t play football again. He’s not thinking like that just yet, but he himself has acknowledged the possibility that his comeback bid might fall short. Smith still has a lot of work to do to get his push-off leg ready for on-field contact, and given the brutality of NFL forces, that work may not be enough.

That said, even if Smith can’t hit the field, there are other ways he can be of value to the organization he’s under contract with. Just look at the impact he still has on his last team; the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl this past weekend, besting the 49ers by a score of 31-20, and Smith, two years removed from his Chiefs tenure, is still being credited with helping to build the culture that led them to victory.

“[Alex Smith] texted me right after the game, saying he enjoyed it just as much as we did,” Patrick Mahomes was quoted as saying in a Pro Football Talk article which cited ESPN.com. “He wasn’t there, but he was part of it — I think that’s the biggest thing. He built the culture that I came into. He was the guy that led the team to all these successful seasons and built that winning culture.”

Smith has been widely praised for his job in mentoring Mahomes in the Texas Tech product’s rookie season. Smith knew the Chiefs drafted Mahomes to be his eventual replacement, and yet, he showed no ill will toward the young signal caller, and showed him how to be a professional, and how to be a leader.

Smith played a vital role in building the present-day Chiefs, one that current Chiefs players and coaches validate. And in Washington, he has a chance to do the same with second-year quarterback Dwayne Haskins and a prevailing young core.

The Redskins won’t play Smith over Haskins; Smith’s health is still shaky, and there’s no reason to bench Haskins after his stark improvement over the second half of 2019. But Smith, as he’s been at every career juncture thus far, will be instrumental in building a new championship culture for the Redskins.