Walt Harris' Success in SF Points to Skins D Coaching Problems

To demonstrate how poor the Redskins secondary coaching is look no further than the case of Walt Harris, who played cornerback for the Skins and was picked up by the 49ers in free agency last off-season.

Last year as a Skin Harris had one interception and was generally viewed as a poor player. In SF he is a stud. He has six interceptions so far, which is more than the entire Skins defense has (5), and made a critical forced fumble against Seattle Thursday night that helped the Niners win a crucial division game. He was also named NFC Defensive Player of November.

The SF Chronicle, which has generally thin coverage of football, has had two stories this season on Walt Harris. The latest one is titled "Investment in Harris Has Paid Off for 49ers."

The 49ers signed the 32-year-old Harris, an unrestricted free agent, in the offseason to a two-year contract worth $835,000 per season. For that modest investment, Harris is tied for the league lead in interceptions with a career-high six and would have had seven but for a defensive penalty that nullified the pick last week in St. Louis.

Gregg Williams let Harris go and gave $10 million guaranteed money each to Adam Archuleta and Andre Carter, who were both stars but are bombing as Skins. Methinks the problem is not the players that we have on the D but the coaches.

The critical question is why couldn't Williams coach Harris up to where he is now? How could Walt Harris be a loser in DC and a newsmaker in SF? Why are we fans, who pay through the teeth, paying Williams a salary that exceeds almost every other head coach when his players fail in his system and excel elsewhere?