Well, it is now officially official.

The #49ers have placed the non-exclusive franchise tag on S Dashon Goldson.

— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) March 2, 2012

After some early discussions about whether the 49ers would consider other franchise options, it became fairly clear in recent days that the 49ers were going to end up placing the franchise tag on Dashon Goldson. For clarification, the non-exclusive franchise tag allows Goldson to speak with other teams. An exclusive tag would have prevented him from negotiating with any other teams, while also providing a higher one year salary if he signed the tender. The one year salary for the non-exclusive franchise tag is reported to be $6.2 million, all guaranteed and all hitting the 2012 cap.

Trent Baalke released a brief statement on the issue: "Dashon has been a 49er since we selected in the fourth round of the 2007 draft. By using the franchise tag on Dashon, it affords us the opportunity to continue to work on a long-term contract with him, while also ensuring he will be a 49er for a sixth season, in 2012."

Dashon Goldson acknowledged that he expected to be franchised and has not seemed particularly perturbed by it. He would like to get a long term contract, but it is good that there does not appear to be any visible anger at the decision. Sometimes the franchise tag leads to a player holdout, but that would appear to hopefully not be the case here.