Alex Smith Visits Dolphins, Prefers 49ers If They Don't Sign Peyton Manning: Report

Free agent quarterback Alex Smith, who guided the San Francisco 49ers to the NFC Championship Game last year, visited the Miami Dolphins yesterday amid news that his old team is interested in Peyton Manning.

But the 27-year-old Smith, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft and had a breakout year in 2011, prefers to be back with the 49ers, provided they don't sign Manning, according to the Miami Herald.

The paper said Smith can get over any hard feelings from the 49ers flirting with Manning even though Smith took San Francisco within one game of the Super Bowl.

How about this: Multiple sources tell me that the only way Alex Smith is going to sign with the Dolphins is if Peyton Manning goes to San Francisco, wrote Armando Salguero of the Herald. That's right, even the jilted 49'ers quarterback would prefer to return to the team that jilted him over the Dolphins organization that on Sunday tried to recruit him to Miami. Smith's camp has made this clear to the Dolphins.

Smith met with the Dolphins for 5 ½ hours, according to the Associated Press.

The 49ers are one of three finalists in the Peyton Manning sweepstakes along with the Denver Broncos and the Tennessee Titans.

If Manning's top priority is winning, the 49ers are the best fit for him, according to the Los Angles Times.

If his goal is to win another Super Bowl, his best chance comes in San Francisco, where the 49ers have a top-notch defense (best in the NFC last season); a 1,200-yard rusher in Frank Gore; an elite tight end in Vernon Davis; and a receiving corps featuring Michael Crabtree and the just-added Mario Manningham, who beat double coverage for the New York Giants in the Super Bowl to make that pivotal, 38-yard catch on the sideline, wrote L.A. Times columnist Sam Farmer.

Under that scenario, Smith would take an offer from the Dolphins.

Both Manning and Smith are represented by agent Tom Condon and Smith is thinking of firing Condon because of a possible conflict of interest, according to the L.A. Times.