Alex Smith turns 34 in May. He was traded (in principle) Tuesday night to a team with far fewer offensive weapons than the team he’s leaving behind in Kansas City. His old team just won back-to-back division titles and made the playoffs four times in his five seasons with them. His new team has one playoff trip in the same span and won as many as nine games once.

Oh, and Smith's new team? It managed that stretch under two head coaches, three de facto general managers … and two quarterbacks, both of whom once were in position to be the franchise guy. In a couple of months, they’ll both be gone. No more Robert Griffin III, and soon, no more Kirk Cousins.

Welcome to Washington, Alex Smith. Enjoy this stage of your career, with a franchise that excels best in getting in its own way.

On the other hand, Smith can enjoy his reported $70 million contract extension. Yes, Smith, at nearly 34, gets the payday Washington’s front office could never bring itself to give Cousins, who is four years younger and who managed to perform despite the indecision, lack of commitment and overt and covert aspersions from his bosses.

Cousins probably will not mourn the end of his six-year tenure in the nation’s capital. He navigated the internal beef that eventually took down his predecessor, Griffin. Yet he will depart as the subject of a different beef, but with similar divisive results. He’ll get the contract from some team in a quarterback-starved league that his old team was never convinced he deserved.

Smith, then, steps in with a team that, as this deal appears to signal, believes it’s close to contention.
Washington went 7-9 in 2017, and this move at best keeps it ahead of the Giants in the NFC East. Neither the Eagles nor the Cowboys should be peering over their shoulders.
Unless this is the first chess move of a grandmaster-level offseason, Washington in 2018 will have little more than Smith and a lot of prayers for better luck with injuries.

Washington's new quarterback definitely will not have a Kareem Hunt, a Tyreek Hill or a Travis Kelce — as a quartet, Hunt ran for more than 1,000 yards, Hill and Kelce caught passes for more than 1,000 each and Smith threw for 4,000-plus. Who among the Chris Thompsons, Jamison Crowders, Josh Doctsons and Jordan Reeds can stay on the field and produce enough to match that?

There's also this to consider: the person with whom Bruce Allen did this deal.
Andy Reid committed larceny once before with this franchise, in 2010 while coaching the Eagles. He packaged Donovan McNabb, coming off a strong season for a playoff team and approaching his 34th birthday, to Washington and coach/president Mike Shanahan. Reid had his replacement ready then (Kevin Kolb, which didn’t work out), and he has Smith’s replacement ready now (Patrick Mahomes).
For Washington, that … didn’t work out, for anybody involved.

History doesn’t have to repeat itself. Smith might have a lot more mileage left. And to be fair, Cousins threw for more than 4,000 yards with the bunch Smith inherits.

Still, everything about this move paints a picture of a franchise determined to hand the franchise reins over to Not Kirk Cousins. Washington accomplished that Tuesday.
That's about all it did