"I'm ready to do whatever they ask me to do," Smith said recently. "My shoulder feels fine. (I'm) just looking forward to learning all of the offense and playing whatever role I get."

In the first few months since McCloughan's promotion to a nominal position of authority over coach Mike Nolan, the GM has stayed out of coaching decisions such as O'Sullivan's promotion, just as he did over the past three seasons when Nolan had the final say on every decision. McCloughan claims he and Nolan still make personnel decisions together, and they almost never disagree.

The general manager doesn't regret giving $24 million in guaranteed money to Smith despite his middling statistics with one of the NFL's worst offenses over the last three years. McCloughan also insists Smith had a fair chance to win the starting job, contrary to rumors that O'Sullivan got the nod despite doing little to distinguish himself in practice.

"From a pure talent standpoint, I see something different, but that doesn't matter," McCloughan said. "You've got to go out there with the guy who understands the system and knows how to work the system best."

Nolan managed to get a fourth year at the 49ers' helm from owner John York despite a 16-32 record in his first three seasons. Now that McCloughan has the authority to fire the coach who hired him to run the personnel department in 2005, he's making no bold predictions about Nolan's future beyond this season.

"We're all under fire, from the standpoint that we need to win," McCloughan said. "We have not won as many games as we would have liked so far. Not making excuses, we feel this team is talented enough to win. We've got to go out and do it. I wouldn't pinpoint one guy that's under more pressure than another guy. We all work together."