Despite talk that the 49ers QB job was open, Jim Harbaugh indicated that Alex Smith had the complete support of the organization.

The inaugural NFL Honors gala offered a generous dose of memorable moments. The Tim Tebow/Katy Perry encounter is in the books, but there were plenty of gems from Saturday night’s NFL/Hollywood mashup:

With the season coming to a close, the crew at Playbook has taken to the film to find players who made marked improvements on the field. In our first look back to 2011, we analyze a trio of quarterbacks.

A fantasy rundown of the Week 17 NFL games.

In a game featuring two top-notch defenses, the fate of the Steelers and 49ers might rest upon the two signal callers who have to stare back at them.

While Alex Smith owns one of the league’s top quarterback ratings versus the blitz (behind only Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady with a 114.1), the Cardinals found a way to pressure the 49ers quarterback in their 21-19 win on Sunday.

With Reggie Bush, Michael Bush and Chris Ogbonnaya having good days, running back controversies could be brewing in a few different NFL locker rooms. That and more in the Week 11 fantasy feedback blog.

In the NFL, defensive coordinators wish stopping a team was as simple as stopping one guy.

With the first Thursday night game of the year around the corner, Jason Smith breaks down previous Thursday night games and finds one position has generally excelled above all others.

The San Francisco 49ers are running away with the NFC West this season. Hard to believe we’d be saying that halfway through the season, but then again it’s not as if the rest of the division is mounting much of a challenge. Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, is the success of 49ers QB Alex Smith, who had been written off by many critics before the season ever began.

Jason Smith takes his weekly look at fantasy quarterbacks and with Philip Rivers on a bye this week, Jason welcomes a new name into his list of the top five.

Our friends at Sports Pickle made a joke about 49ers QB Alex Smith in real-time Sunday that couldn’t be overlooked: “I bet other No. 1 overall pick QB busts think Alex Smith has become a total sellout.”

NFL.com analyst Bucky Brooks got some feathers rattled recently in a column he wrote suggesting that Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers shouldn’t be crowned among the league’s elite quarterbacks (Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Tom Brady) yet. Some of those emotions might get stirred up again as we broached the subject in the Cover Two podcast with Brooks and NFL.com senior writer Steve Wyche.

And we’re down to No. 1. In Elliot Harrison‘s breakdown of the top 20 games of 2010, his gold medal goes to a late-season thriller between the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants — that essentially ended the Giants’ playoff hopes and invigorated those of the Green Bay Packers.

If the lockout lingers into training camp, handcuffing your top running backs could become more important than ever.