‘He Has a Touch’ : Besides Being an Outstanding Coach, 49ers’ Bill Walsh Is a Top Talent Scout

When Bill Walsh joined the San Francisco 49ers as their head coach in 1979, the second player he drafted was quarterback Joe Montana of Notre Dame.

That surprised many of the others who coach and scout in the National Football League.

Montana can’t throw the long ball, they said truthfully. So they had passed on him in the first round, and again in the second, leaving Walsh to pick him in the third.

Swiftly, however, Montana rose to become the NFL’s top-ranked passer of all time as the 49ers threw short passes and won Super Bowls XVI and XIX, both in the last four years.

What this suggests is that in the area of player evaluation, there’s a significant difference between Walsh and other coaches. On his record, he’s one of the NFL’s leading talent scouts.

“You win with people in this league, and Walsh has the people,” Raider executive Al LoCasale said the other day, before the 49ers had beaten the Raiders in their exhibition game Saturday night. “He’s a creative coach, sure, but the key to the 49ers is the players Walsh has brought in.”

Besides Montana, these include Ronnie Lott, Dwight Clark, Fred Dean, Bubba Paris, Keena Turner, Wendell Tyler, Roger Craig and so many other gifted athletes that the 49ers led the NFL last winter with 10 of their players in the Pro Bowl.

“Bill has a nice touch in the draft,” 49er Vice President Ken Flower said.

“I don’t know what it is, exactly, but it’s like what they say about a great passer--he has a touch.”

That is hardly a usual condition in pro ball. The evidence is overwhelming that there is no correlation between the abilities to scout successfully and coach effectively.

For example, Miami’s Don Shula is often voted best active coach and also coach of the year because of what the voters call his extraordinary work with journeymen. It is Shula, however, who is responsible for collecting that material.

Walsh’s team overwhelmed Shula’s team, 38-16, in the Super Bowl last January, in large part because the 49ers had the better running backs and a much better defense.

To win last year’s championship, the 49ers needed two clever rookies, linebacker Todd Shell and nose tackle Michael Carter. This season, they will line up another outstanding rookie, wide receiver Jerry Rice.

Under Walsh, the team improves steadily.

Speaking from the inside as a 49er executive, Flower, a former USC basketball captain, said: “Our general manager is a former NFL head coach, John McVay, and we have a lot of other smart people. So (Walsh) gets good advice, and he listens to it, but he does all the decision-making himself.

“At the draft, Bill is always looking for players who excel in something--some little part of the game or some character trait--even though they aren’t well regarded overall.”

Speaking from the outside as a 49er opponent, LoCasale said: “Walsh’s flexibility and inventiveness help him get the most out of his talent. He can utilize different kinds of personnel because he is so flexible and creative himself.

“He had one kind of offense when he had a pocket passer, Dan Fouts, and he has another kind now with Joe Montana.”

In a game of mistakes, Walsh makes his share. Before he drafted Montana in 1979, he picked UCLA’s James Owens.

But Walsh’s errors appear to be fewer and less costly than those of others. It is his high batting average that makes him a big winner.

“There aren’t many great all-around players--any year--in the draft,” Walsh said. “So, at every position, we try to find players who offer something specific--who have an area of expertise that can be helpful to us.”

A case in point is William (Bubba) Paris, the 49ers’ 300-pound left tackle, who, when the 49ers drafted him in 1982, was considered by other pro teams to be too fat and lethargic.

Something about the way he moved around in Michigan’s running offense made Walsh think Paris could become a Super Bowl pass blocker. And, asked about Paris now, Walsh said: “He’s a great player, which we thought he would be, if carefully monitored.”

As both coach and president of the 49ers, Walsh is in full command of the ship under owner Ed DeBartolo, giving him, he thinks, a decisive advantage.

“Our fans like our technical football,” Walsh said, meaning his dazzling offense. “But I’m really more concerned with two other things--the chemistry of the team and the proper evaluation and selection of talent. Nothing on this club is more important than the talent.”

Except, possibly, the man who gets it.