Redskins Add Saunders

The Washington Redskins, whose offense struggled in their recent playoff run, hired Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Al Saunders yesterday and signed the rest of their assistant coaches to contract extensions, the team announced.

The Redskins did not specify what role Saunders would fill or what his title would be, but a team source said he would be the primary offensive assistant, as he had been with the Chiefs.

The Redskins said the team's other offensive coaches will retain their current titles, including Joe Bugel, who is the assistant head coach-offense, and Don Breaux, who is the offensive coordinator. Bugel also coaches the offensive line under the Redskins' unconventional coaching structure.

All of the current coaches except for head coach Joe Gibbs and Gregg Williams, the assistant head coach-defense, were entering the final year of their original three-year contracts. Terms of their new contracts were not immediately available, but the extensions will keep the coaching staff, the highest paid in NFL history, intact. Saunders will reportedly earn about $6 million over three seasons.

"Obviously, he had some opportunities," Kansas City Coach Herman Edwards said of Saunders, who will be introduced at Redskins Park in a news conference Monday. "But he felt his best opportunity right now as a coach was to go to Washington. I wish him a lot of luck. He's done a great job here with our offense."

Redskins officials were unavailable for comment. Team owner Daniel Snyder was at Redskins Park for part of the day yesterday. Gibbs is out of town for the weekend. Saunders's addition comes a year after Gibbs added Bill Musgrave to the offensive staff as a quarterbacks coach after he was fired as Jacksonville's offensive coordinator.

The move brings even more experience to an already mature staff; many of Gibbs's assistants have been top assistants or head coaches elsewhere. Saunders had interviewed for several head coaching positions in recent weeks, including with Oakland and Minnesota, after Dick Vermeil retired as head coach in Kansas City. Vermeil had pushed for Saunders to become his replacement.

Edwards, who left the New York Jets for the Kansas City head coaching job, announced yesterday that Chiefs' offensive line coach Mike Solari would replace Saunders.

"I knew Al was the kind of guy who every year is going to be in the running to be a head coach," Edwards said. "He's a guy who's primed to be a head coach. He's always going to be a candidate. You want to make sure you have some kind of consistency with your offense."

Saunders, who turns 59 on Feb. 1, has coached 23 years in the NFL and spent 15 with Kansas City, most recently from 2001 to 2005. He is an accomplished swimmer and long-distance runner, and was a receiver and defensive back at San Jose State from 1966-68.

Saunders and Gibbs first became acquainted in 1970, when Saunders became a graduate assistant coach at the University of Southern California, where Gibbs was already part of the staff.

Both men studied under Don Coryell, an offensive innovator. Saunders served as head coach in San Diego from 1986 to 1988, when he took over for Coryell, and has been a part of several explosive offenses, including the St. Louis attack that won a Super Bowl in 1999. In 2004, the Chiefs placed in the top five in four major offensive categories, and Kansas City's running game has been dominant for much of this decade under his guidance.

The Redskins' offense evolved in 2005 but still has room for improvement. The team produced just 120 total yards in a playoff win at Tampa Bay, and was again unable to move the ball in Seattle, where it lost in the division playoffs.