KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- By the NFL's traditional passer rating system, Alex Smith of the Kansas City Chiefs is the NFL's best quarterback through three games. It's arguable, perhaps, whether Smith has indeed been the best, but by any rational measure he at least belongs in the conversation.
The QBR system came along later, and to show the difficulty of evaluating quarterback play, it has Smith as the 16th-rated passer. In this case, at least, QBR has it wrong.
Some of the factors holding Smith back in the QBR system:
A large percentage of his passing yards have come after the catch.