Alex Smith’s last appearance on “Monday Night Football” was humiliation on a national stage.

He missed open receivers. And he missed them by a lot.
Smith was so errant that analyst Ron Jaworski spent much of the ESPN broadcast detailing flaws in the quarterback’s mechanics.
Jaworski, for example, noted a stiff front leg that created problems with velocity and accuracy.
That was Nov. 12, 2007.
And how are those mechanics now?
“I don’t think they’re fixed,” Jaworski said by phone Thursday. “I still think they need to be improved. But there is improvement.
“There’s always a learning curve with a young quarterback, and he has gotten better.”
Smith gets a Monday night do-over this week, when the Arizona Cardinals visit Candlestick Park. It is his first Monday night appearance since that 24-0 loss to Seattle.
Jaworski, the former Pro Bowl quarterback, will be back in the ESPN booth evaluating the progress. He took a break from game film Thursday to talk with the San Jose Mercury News about the evolution of the 49ers’ former No. 1 pick.
Smith has blossomed lately, registering his first career 300-yard game last Sunday. Smith also has 86 pass attempts over the past two games without an interception.
“I think he’s clearly made progress. There’s no question,” Jaworski said. “It’s maturity. It’s practice time. It’s understanding the system.”
But then there’s that stiff front leg.
Jaworski said he hopes to find a situation during the broadcast when he can explain the problem with the help of a slow-motion camera.
But, in general, Jaworski said a quarterback should have some flex in his front leg. That allows the shoulders to stay parallel to the ground.
Smith’s inconsistency means his upper body is out of whack at times, Jaworski said.
“Some of those throws have a knee-lock, and it’s kind of driving that shoulder up in the air,” he explained. “So you lose a little bit of your velocity. But he has gotten better. It’s not as consistent and as noticeable as it was a couple of years ago.”
Smith owes his improved mechanics to better health. That poor Monday night game also happened to be his last before surgery to repair torn ligaments in his shoulder. He later had another operation to repair a bone fracture.
Smith acknowledged Thursday that Jaworski probably had plenty to critique in 2007. Smith was compensating for his shoulder problems by altering his delivery.
“I guess that, looking back, there probably was a lot fundamentally that wasn’t right,” Smith said. “But I didn’t necessarily go back and study it or anything. It was a matter of getting healthy and getting right.”
Smith has looked like a different passer lately as the 49ers have decided to have him operate mostly out of the shotgun.
Jaworski can relate. He said some quarterbacks don’t feel comfortable out of the shotgun — Joe Montana for one — but others find it liberating.
“When we went to the shotgun in Philadelphia, I loved it,” said Jaworski, who finished in the league’s top 10 for touchdown passes six times.
“I just liked being away from that rush. I thought I could see the lanes better. There weren’t as many batted balls on those three-step drops when those big ol’ defensive linemen put their hands up in the air. I thought I gained a distinct advantage with that.
“Now, I don’t want to speak for Alex, but I think there’s probably a comfort level.”
Like others, Jaworski said Smith’s development has been stunted by revolving offensive coordinators — five in five years. He noted that several of the NFL’s best passers get to work with the same play-caller every year until “they understand each other,” he said. “They speak the same language. They see the field with the same eyes.”
But in the least, Jaworski sees progress.
And that’s praise of Smith you might not have heard the last time he was on “Monday Night Football.”
“They’re putting a lot of the burden on Alex Smith at this point,” Jaworski said. “I think for the most part he’s handled that burden pretty well.”