The San Francisco 49ers put the finishing touches on their masterpiece "How to ruin a No. 1 draft pick in just more than three years." yesterday morning, the team announced, as expected that Alex Smith would go on injured reserve and will not play this season.

The move essentially ends Smith's career as a 49er. The team — which has paid him more than $31 million since drafting him in 2005 — will almost certainly cut him in the off-season.

Some other team will pick him up as a reclamation project. And then we'll actually see what Smith's potential can be.

It's a sad ending to a pathetic story that pretty much sums up the 49ers' ineptitude under Coach Mike Nolan. Nolan, in making the announcement, didn't provide any details. Didn't seem to know specifically what the problem was with Smith, or if he knew, didn't seem to care.

But then, why would Wednesday be any different?

"All I need to know is if he'll be back on this football team so that I make an adjustment to our roster," Nolan said. "So I don't have any specifics for you other than that."

Here's a specific: Smith won't ever be back. Not as long as Tom Condon is his agent and would like to hook up his young client with a team that is — oh, what's the word? — competent.

So Smith's last act as a 49er will be in an August exhibition game against San Diego in which he threw two interceptions. The 24-year-old who had already been demoted by that point was serenaded with a chorus of boos. The final image did little to change the perception of Smith as a No. 1 bust. Smith has earned the venom and vitriol of many angry 49ers fans.

Monday night, those same fans got a glimpse of what might have been. Aaron Rodgers — the former Cal quarterback who was the 49ers' other draft option in 2005 — looked great in his first start for Green Bay.

Competent. Cool. Like a winner.

Oh, you could hear the sighs around the Bay Area: If only the 49ers had drafted Rodgers.

Who are we kidding? The 49ers would have messed up Rodgers, too. If Joe Montana had been drafted by this regime, there never would have been a championhip legacy to ruin.

Smith always was a long shot. He came out of Utah, where he started most of two seasons in a spread-option offense. He was only 20 when he was drafted, raw and with a steep learning curve ahead. It was clear he was going to need excellent grooming and deft handling to succeed.

Needless to say, he never received any of that with the 49ers.

Instead, Smith was linked to a novice head coach who doesn't seem to know the first thing about offense or how to handle a young quarterback. He got four offensive coordinators and four offensive systems in fourseasons. He suffered a nasty shoulder injury. He had his toughness called into question. He was forced to try to prove himself even though he was injured. He finally ended up undergoing surgery in December for an injury suffered in September.

The latest injury is a fracture that Smith said occurred on a deep throw in last Friday's practice. We haven't heard any medical reports — who knows if we ever will — but it wouldn't be at all surprising to learn that such a strange injury came from overworking a shoulder that wasn't completely healed.

Could Rodgers have survived all that?

The fans who want to demonize Smith seem to forget that he seemed on the right track under former offensive coordinator Norv Turner. He made mistakes but he also — almost single-handedly — gave the 49ers a victory in Seattle in 2006. And a year ago, despite incredible offensive ineptitude, Smith led the 49ers to an opening victory by improvising with his feet and arm in the final two minutes.

If you want to fault Smith for anything, it's that he is a nice kid. He truly is. He's not a take-charge personality. Not an in-your-face leader. There's a school of thought that mildness is what attracted Nolan to him in the first place — Rodgers came with that dreaded moniker "cocky."

Smith's nice-guy demeanor probably saved Nolan's job. After Smith complained to the Mercury News last year that Nolan undermined him, Nolan seemed to be in a world of trouble. After all, the Yorks had invested a huge amount in the quarterback. But Smith backed off, Nolan convinced the Yorks to keep him, and here we are.

It's a sad tale. The 49ers haven't produced much in the past few years, but at least they produced a how-to manual for any other NFL teams looking to bungle a $31 million No. 1 draft pick.