Originally posted by AllTimeGreat:
Originally posted by m_brockalexander:
Let's all take a step back and see this signing for what it really is. Dahl is NOT being signed as THE replacement for Dashon Goldson. If anything, he is being signed as the replacement for long lost Colin Jones who they traded away before last season to the Panthers.
Dahl is being signed for depth and his special teams ability, nothing more. Baalke is trying to rebuild an area of our team that slipped last year because we lost some key contributors (Costanzo, Jones, etc.). Not one of you were concerned when they signed Dan Skuta because it is obvious that he is not being asked to replace Willis or Bowman. Call me crazy, but that is pretty obvious to me.
One last thing, if the Niners made this move AFTER the draft, I would be worried. I think they have plenty of opportunities to find the next Goldson in late April. Take a deep breath, Zoners. This is not the end of the story at FS.
I just don't think this move makes much sense.
Safety is one of the most challenging positions for a rookie to learn coming into the NFL and unless we are prepared to see a lot of blown coverages in the secondary we don't want to be depending on our draft pick to man that position. So we still need to sign a veteran FS (like Michael Huff or Kerry Rhodes) and we now have that much less cap space to do this.
This move would make sense if we needed depth a safety, but our problem isn't depth, we need a starting caliber replacement. We already have CJ Spillman who was our best special teamer the past couple years, Trenton Robinson, Michael Thomas from the practice squad + a likely high draft pick on a safety. If we keep Dahl and Spillman and our draft pick, we have to cut Robinson who might be important to keep since we'll be losing Whitner next year. And how many special teamers can we really afford to keep at one position anyways? If we cut Spillman we replace one good special teams player for another.
No 3 years for 5 million isn't a lot of money. But when we have holes to fill and limited cap space to do it every dollar counts and spending money on a guy who isn't starting material and has a good chance of being cut is a questionable move at this point imo.
If you were worried about a rookie playing safety and blowing coverages, just look at the Falcons game tape and you will see our former Pro Bowl safety let Julio Jones run right by him for the initial score of the game. It happens to everyone now and again. Having a rookie start at QB before last year was considered ridiculous and look at how that turned out for the Dolphins, Colts, Redskins and Seahawks. You either trust that Baalke will pick up a great FS in the draft capable of starting or you don't.
Dahl's deal really only has the Niners on the hook for $ 800k guaranteed money. It will be a straight up competition among him, Robinson, Thomas, Spillman and whomever else they add to the mix. Next man up as far as I'm concerned. It may not be the fantastic move that we have come to expect from our front office, but it doesn't scare me either.
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