Alex Smith, the first player taken in the 2005 draft, knows that he's down to his last chance with the 49ers. "I think I'm in a very different place mentally than where I was even last year," the quarterback said. "Obviously, when you're hurt in back-to-back years, you're kind of searching. Before this I worried about things that were out of my control and let them affect me, affect my mind, affect my attitude, which in turn affected my play and performance. And I came to the conclusion ? this is honest, I'm not BSing ? I'll control what I can control, which is especially my attitude and state of mind and work ethic. And the rest I'm going to let run off me. "I got married this offseason. I'm really stable outside of football. With all the media stuff and what I went through with (Mike) Nolan and my injuries, I've reached a point if I let any of that get to me or if I think about it or dwell on it or get that in my head, it ends up having a negative effect on me. I'm not going to dwell on what people think of me."