As mentioned earlier, Dashon Goldson made it to Santa Clara today to sign his franchise tender and report to training camp with the rest of the veterans. While it was not shocking that he decided against a holdout, it was nonetheless a relief to get him into camp and move past this. Goldson and the 49ers could be in this dance again next offseason, but thanks to the rules of the franchise tag, they are not allowed to work out a long term contract before the end of the season.
Goldson took some time to chat with the media after getting his deal done and had some interesting comments about his situation and his reasoning for getting to camp on time. As to his contract, Goldson indicated had "not really" made a formal offer for a long-term deal. We can't really read everything into that, but if they didn't make him an offer, that could go one of three ways: a) they want to see him prove himself a second consecutive season, b) they have other ideas when it comes to long term plans at free safety, or c) some mix of those two. We'll get a better idea when next offseason gets here.
As to why he reported on time instead of waiting until sometime into camp like Aubrayo Franklin did a couple years ago?
Why come in on the first day? It was a no-brainer. I owed it to my teammates. Those guys have been working extremely hard. I missed a little bit of the offseason earlier and I didn't want to miss another part of this training camp, to come back out here and sharpen up, pick up where we left off last year and just add to it. I don't want to come off to a slow start to the season.
Is there a sense this could be a special season and you want to be here to get off on the right foot? "Definitely. We did some good things last year and it's very important for us to start fast and finish faster. We've got a lot of new additions and just to get acquainted with some of those guys, and just sharpen a lot of stuff that needs to be sharpened on the defensive side of the ball."
One has to wonder if he saw what happened with Franklin in his contract year and in the ensuing year and a half, and realizes his best bet to get paid is to come in and take care of business. I doubt we'll get any more specifics on this, but it wouldn't surprise me if that was at least somewhere in his or his agent's mind.
Whatever the case, he's in town and recognizes the kind of situation he and this defense are in heading into the coming season. There's business to take care of and he's ready to get going.