ESPN’s Alex Smith Talks Myles Garrett, Rodgers, Hurts, Kelce & More with Rich

Alex Smith zoomed into the show fired up, and not just from a morning workout. There was big-time football to talk about, starting with the Myles Garrett trade, and the former quarterback framed it as a sign of how much the NFL has changed.

"I'm not sure this trade happens 20 years ago," Smith said. General managers are more willing to take risks now, and the idea of moving a generational talent, one of the greatest defensive ends ever in his prime, still sounds insane to him. He credited the Rams' guts, the same audacity Les Snead showed trading for Matthew Stafford, and tipped his cap to a front office chasing a Super Bowl window.

On who won the deal, Smith leaned toward Cleveland. The Browns are young, drafted well, and face a bill coming due on all those 22- and 23-year-olds. Flipping a 30-year-old star for Jared Verse, an age-appropriate peer for that young core, plus a haul of picks, struck him as a smart reset. He drew the parallel to the Deshaun Watson saga: Cleveland sent a fortune to Houston, and the Texans turned it into C.J. Stroud and Will Anderson Jr. and a long-term contender. Daring, yes, but Smith sees the same opportunity here.

He also painted the flip side from a quarterback's chair. Asked how Joe Burrow woke up feeling, Smith did not hold back. Not having to face Garrett twice a year, a mountain of a man who once had a six-sack game and hunts the passer every snap, is the kind of relief that lives in the back of your head. Burrow, Rich agreed, will sleep much better.

The talk turned to Aaron Rodgers, Smith's old draft classmate, back at it in Pennsylvania. Smith loves watching it. He compared aging stars to Steph Curry and LeBron James, players taking on two opponents at once, the young guys and Father Time. Rodgers, he said, changed the game with his style and flair, and even if it looks different from his heyday, Smith applauds the guts to keep competing for what may be a last hurrah.

On the Eagles without A.J. Brown, Smith expects a stylistic return to their Super Bowl formula: more West Coast concepts, a more diverse run game, more under center and bootleg action reminiscent of the Rams and Niners, with Jalen Hurts still the engine. Brown's production will be missed, he said, since you could not guard him one-on-one, but Hurts does more than he gets credit for.

Smith was calling in from Kansas City for the Abbott Dream Team, the global health company's search, with Real Madrid, for young soccer players who earn an all-expenses-paid trip to train in Madrid. What mattered most to him was the nutrition and health expertise Abbott provides those teenagers, knowledge he wishes he had at 18, when, he admitted, what he ate was laughable.

The warmest stretch came on Travis Kelce. Smith was the quarterback in Kelce's first five years in Kansas City, and the memories poured out: a rookie who could turn a shallow cross into a touchdown and a choreographed dance, who never stopped smiling in the huddle, who simply loved the game. Smith, who played golf with Kelce at Pebble Beach this offseason, did not hesitate to call him the best receiving tight end of all time. He also admitted that young Travis got called to the principal's office plenty, with more than a few tough early conversations with Andy Reid before he grew up.