The trade is a good one for both the 49ers and the Chiefs. The price is pretty much exactly right. There is no way a newly hired HC/GM tandem like Andy Reid and John Dorsey would give up the #1 pick in a trade, but owing to the depth of this year's draft, they have effectively tendered the 49ers the next best thing: a functional first-round pick plus a highly likely second pick in the 30s in next year's draft. I personally felt that Baalke and Harbaugh might have gotten a smidgen more for Smith, but it's hard to complain about the numbers when it was always possible that the Chiefs, and everyone else, could have refused to bite on an early trade and simply called the 49ers' bluff when the deadline came to release him.

As everyone says, the 49ers now go into April's draft with more pure ammunition than any team in the league. There is no reason why the franchise cannot use that ammunition in this year's draft to find replacements, upgrades or depth for every position of need on the team, with the exception of wide receiver and...quarterback.

And it's not hard to see why Andy Reid went after Smith. As someone so well put it, he's the best non-great QB in the NFL right now, and a close to perfect fit for the type of offense Reid likes to run.

You all know that I mounted something of a rearguard action for Smith this season, so you may well have a measure of skepticism toward any argument I might make about his prospects for success with another team. But there's a dimension to the coming partnership between Reid and Smith that goes beyond X-and-O cleverness or on-field or in-game abilities that I think deserves to be aired, shared and discussed here. (And if it triggers GT's Maudlin Meter, so be it.)

I believe Andy Reid and Alex Smith have the potential to form a significant and powerful team for the next five or six years, and here's why: both men have arrived at a cusp in their lives at which the gifted and focused have the opportunity to truly shine. Reid is 54, an age when certain people's brains achieve the perfect blend of experience, expertise and pure performance. When that blend is achieved, the plateau can extend for a decade or more. Smith, on the other hand, is 28 going on 29. He has been tried, tested, developed, cured, whatever you want to call it, he has at this point in his NFL career received as extensive and thorough a preparation as any QB one could name, and he has a lot of physical mileage left in his tank. When Reid gets his hands on this QB, he will want to add things to his repertoire, make adjustments, shifts in emphasis, a tip here or there about this or that technical point, but he will not have to waste time on the kind of schooling in fundamentals that he has had to devote to most of the previous QBs he has coached. Smith, like Reid, stands at the beginning of what might be a five-to-ten year plateau of optimal performance.

They have something else in common. Andy Reid's oldest son Garrett died of a heroin overdose (basically committed suicide) just before the beginning of the 2012 season. Alex Smith's best friend David Edwards committed suicide just before the start of the 2008 season. Those are the kind of losses that create understanding and bonds between people. I think that the change of venue and the passing of time should help Reid achieve a better focus than he had in his last two or three years in Philly. Likewise, Smith, now married with two children, finally walks away from one of the most toxic environments any player has ever had to deal with in his first years in the NFL.

There's a commonality of pain, adversity, and most of all maturity as well as smartness in these two that should create a shared determination to now go out and do something meaningful in professional football over the next few years. It also strikes me that Reid's temperament is calmer and closer to Smith's than Jim Harbaugh's, another factor that should work in their favor. Indeed, it doesn't take an expert in psychology to see how Smith could so easily slot into the role of missing son for Reid.

It's going to be fascinating to watch, certainly. And it's raised my interest in the Kansas City Chiefs back to the level it reached when Joe Montana became their quarterback. The Chiefs in many ways resemble the 49ers two or three years ago. They sent 6 players to the Pro-Bowl last year, no less than three of them linebackers. They have at least one highly talented individual at the safety, cornerback, running back and wide receiver positions. They have a lot of defensive and offensive linemen who will be entering their second year this season, the year when most young players make their biggest leap up in performance. In other words, just like the 49ers three years ago, there is more talent on that roster than their record would seem to indicate.