Smith will be back as the starter

Alex Smith has been San Francisco's starting quarterback in 10 games this season and he awards the job going on for the 49ers.

Though they ended with a disappointing 8-8 finish, Coach Mike Singletary had good comment on him and said he saw "steady progress" from Smith and that he would remain the starter heading into the offseason. "I don't think it's a matter of another coordinator," Singletary said. "I think it's a matter of putting the pieces together, identifying exactly the offense that you're going to run, identifying the kind of offensive line that you need in order to run that. I think we have a lot of pieces in place. I just think it's a matter of getting all the pieces in the right places." The details of the evaluation process will be cleared after they talked with the other coaches.

I expect to watch Smith running on the field with 49ers jersey.