The way San Francisco 49ers safety Donte Whitner looks at it, a good defense doesn't need any extra incentive to hit hard.
"If you have the right type of guys in that (defensive) room, you don't have to set bounties or pay money for guys to play physical and play hard," Whitner said Monday, via the San Jose Mercury News. "It's going to come naturally. That's the type of guys we have on our defense."
It's a point that has become somewhat lost in the New Orleans Saints' "bounty" scandal. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams wasn't very effective at his job the last two years. The Saints might have taken a lot of cheap shots, but they weren't particularly good at stopping teams. The turnover-focused approach collapsed in 2010 and 2011. They couldn't stop the run or the pass. The Saints had chance after chance to stop Alex Smith in crunch time and it didn't happen.
Whitner is right that the 49ers' defense has more hard-hitting talent than Williams ever dreamed of in New Orleans.
