Adventures in Free Agency - Donald Strickland Re-Signs

Nearly every day, I log onto the internets and hope to see some Earth-shattering, Niner-news that will put the hope in my heart as a fan and put the fear of God in the hearts of the rest of the league.

Something along the lines of "SAN FRANCISCO SIGNS WR CHAD JOHNSON FOR LEAGUE MINIMUM" would suffice. It may sound unbelievable, but there was a time when great players came cheap for the Bay Area's better half simply because those players wanted to win. Those days are sadly long gone.

Instead, the biggest stories over the past week have been the re-signing of reserve CB Donald Strickland and the stripping of a mid-level 2008 draft pick because of some tampering nonsense with Lance Briggs, a player the 49ers didn't even come remotely close to signing. Be still my beating heart.

OK, so Donald Strickland is indeed a solid backup at the corner position. He's made some good plays in his brief tenure with the 49ers, and he is the type of player great teams need to support the stars. Were starting CB's Nate Clements or Walt Harris to get injured for a few games, I would feel relatively comfortable knowing that a seasoned vet like Strickland could hold down the fort for a brief while if at all necessary... but I still stress the word brief.

Which brings me to the looming Walt Harris situation. The most succinct way I can explain this is to say that Walt's old, and old guys who aren't named Darrell Green don't last long playing cornerback in the NFL. Case in point, an aging wide reciever that the Niners just picked up by the name of Ike Bruce abused the hell out of Walt last year early in the season, making a reciever two years senior to Walt look like he was still in his prime.

I'm not saying Harris is completely washed up, but that day of reckoning is drawing nearer and nearer. Unless Nolan, Scotty, or Manusky think the wildly inconsistent Shawnte Spencer is going to all-of-a-sudden become a starting caliber corner (and no, he definitely isn't), then they'll have to do something to make sure teams still have to throw at Nate Clement's side of the field at least once in a while.

Nick's Take
Jesse kind of hit the nail on the head with this one.  Strickland is good enough at what he does, and I'm glad he's coming back. I like CB Marcus Hudson a bit more in terms of being the current "go-to" backup guy at the position, but Strickland isn't awful by any means (unlike former 49er corners Mike Rumph or Sammy Davis).

I also definitely agree with Jesse that there could very well be a pending disaster on the horizon with the situation surrounding CB's Walt Harris and Shawntae Spencer (I wrote about it last season as well).

Feel free to take off your 49er "homer hat" for a second, because I'm about to bash a couple of players most fans hold in pretty high regard.

Ok, you've been warned.

The fact is that Walt Harris is old and severely overrated. His 2006 Pro Bowl season was a result of racking up interceptions against errant quarterbacks like Oakland's Andrew Walter and Seattle's Seneca Wallace.  As Jesse wrote above, former Rams WR Isaac Bruce schooled him for 145 yards last year in St. Louis, and trust me when I say that such a case was not an isolated incident.

Now, does that mean Harris is washed up? Absolutely not. He is a pretty good cornerback that comes up with a solid pick or two from time to time (just ask Matt Linehart and Jay Cutler). But does he strike fear into the hearts of some of the NFL's best wide receivers? I'd bet against it.

I'll just say this. When the Patriots come to Candlestick this season and it's Wes Welker vs. Walt Harris, I would not be surprised if Welker racks up over 100 yards receiving (if not over 150) against Harris. That's just what I expect based on Harris' performances in 2007. The dude is just regressing.

And then there's CB Shawntae Spencer. He was so inconsistent last season that he's become almost 100% unreliable.  Need proof?  Watch the highlights from Saints @ Niners last season. The Saints knew exactly who to go after, and Spencer got absolutely destroyed by WR Marques Colston. Again, just trust me that such an example was not an isolated incident.

So I know some of you out there reading this are dying to tell me that the 49ers had no pass rush during the 2007 season and therefore the defensive backs got burned more often than not as a result. I will only somewhat see the logic in this, as Nate Clements seemed to hold his own more often than not in 2007. Yes, the lack of having a decent pass rush is a problem, but there are just too many times that Harris and Spencer (especially Spencer) get abused by opposing teams' wide receivers.

So where's my CB love going these days? I believe second-year player Tarrell Brown could be the long term answer concerning the replacement of Walt Harris. Brown was a stud at Texas, and he only dropped to the fifth round of the 2006 NFL Draft because he had character issues. As long as Nolan finds a way to give him some playing time (like Nolan should have last season after the 49ers were out of the playoff race), I think Brown could be the Niners' next star at corner.