With just 5 days left for him to sign a long term deal before the deadline for franchise players to do so, San Francisco 49ers safety Dashon Goldson admitted today that he may have to play out next season under the 6.2 million dollar franchise tag. Earlier this offseason, it appeared that a deal would get done as Goldson reportedly wanted 8 million yearly and the 49ers were willing to offer 7, not a huge difference to make up. On top of that, there were no shortage of deals being signed by safeties in the past calendar year for the two sides to use as reference as Michael Huff, Michael Griffin, and Eric Weedle have all signed deals in the range of 4-5 years, 7-8 million yearly, and 15-19 million guaranteed.

However, things no longer look so optimistic after Goldson’s comments, which were reported first on foxsports.com. It’s possible the 49ers just don’t see Goldson as that caliber of player even though they used their franchise tag on him. Last offseason, they let him explore the open market as much as he wanted before he settled on a cheap one year deal back with the 49ers.

Though he made the Pro Bowl last season, the 49ers may want him to prove it again in 2012 as he had done nothing substantial until 2011. On top of that, they may feel his strong season in 2011 was the result of incredible play upfront from the front 7. The fact that he was actually one of the most frequently beaten safeties in the league last year (4^th most yards surrendered with 458, and 5^th most touchdowns surrendered with 4) despite his 6 interceptions supports this. ProFootballFocus graded him 71^st among 84 safeties in coverage, though he was above average against the run.

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