Chris Luva Luva wrote:I never said Walt was better than Carlos. Im saying that Walt is nowhere near as bad as people make him out to be. He's not the weak link of the defense. He never lost a game for us. His weaknesses will be masked moreso if we had a pass rush. Im giving dude props because a lot of people like to rip on him.
So what we can pressure the QB! We pressured Hassleback but he like many other QBs have been able to make plays on their feet against us. What good is pressure if the QB can keep the play alive and outrun the linemen? Our linemen are incredibly slow and hardly ever catch a QB from behind when he's on the run. What happened in the SEA game? Why was the entire defense getting picked apart? No pass rush. Sean, Carlos, Walt, Ade all had safety help and we still got picked apart. Why? No pass rush.
If you feel that you an accurately judge a corners abilities with the inconsistent pass rush that we had then thats fine, go ahead. If your fine with the horrible pass rush then thats fine too. Not only would Walts abilities seem to increase but so would Rogers and Springs.
Of course our secondary's job would be alot easier if we had a dominant force on the line. The reality is that Defensive End and Cornerback are two of the most highly paid positions (behind QB) in the NFL for precisely the reason you point out. There are not many elite corners or pass rushers who can dominate their positions. That being the case...many teams...most teams don't have the person you keep speaking of. We can name the dominant DE's in this league (Strahan, Freeney, Abraham, Rice, Taylor, Kearse* sometimes) but after that you have a lot of guys who will give you 5-8 sacks in any good year.
You seem to equate our lack of having one of the aforementioned guys as "lacking a pass rush" and therfore inhibiting the play of our corners. That is not a true statement. We have two good corners, and Walt Harris is serviceable. I don't rip the guy as much, but I do think he is the weak link of our secondary. Let's face it...we don't have Sean Taylor or Shawn Springs level of play at each position. No team does. Out of our secondary Harris is the weakest link. No he's not the worse corner in the league, and no we shouldn't get rid of him.
What we should do is get some depth. Perhaps a younger, physical corner who can play the nickle and let Harris come in to spell those players. He is a 10 year vet, he's had knee surgery that many thought he couldn't recover from, and he has nagging injuries (calf, hamstring, knee)....it makes since to allow Harris to do what he does best, and that is come onto the field sparingly when needed. When he is forced into the starting lineup he is definitely the weakest link of the secondary.
Oh, and pressure matters because you were saying we have no pass rush. Pressure matters a lot when you are playing teams that use alot of timing for their routes (i.e. west coast offenses) Hasselbeck got away from us, but he's done that all year.
I want us to get one of those "dominant pass rushers" that everyone wants to pony up the big bucks for...but name one of them that's in the Superbowl right now? Having a Jevon Kearse or Freeney doesn't automatically make Walt Harris turn into Deltha Oneal..you can't just look at sacks by D-Linemen and say we have no pass rush.
Oh, I think the real weak link "god love him" is Reynaldo Wynn...if we can add an Abraham or Robert Mathis or maybe trade up into the 1st round and grab Mario, Kiwi or Hali...I would support that 100 percent. My only point is you can't just point to the lack of a franchise guy as the sole reason Walt gets beat up and down the field.