Report: Tampa Bay Buccaneers are trying to trade Dashon Goldson
The former Pro Bowl safety with the San Francisco 49ers has struggled to live up to his lofty contract standards.
When the Buccaneers signed former Chicago Bears safety Chris Conte, he reunited his former safety tandem in Chicago of Conte and Major Wright. This move will possibly squeeze out their highest paid safety.
With the signing if Bears S Chris Conte, #Bucs will attempt to trade S Dashon Goldson. But with his $8-mil salary, that could be tough.
— Rick Stroud (@NFLSTROUD) March 12, 2015
Dashon Goldson is set to be on the Buccaneers’ cap for the next three years, and each of those years the Buccaneers pay the safety $8 million, $8 million and $7.25 million. Finding a market for a limited safety in a strong free agency class will be difficult for the Buccaneers.
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Last season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Goldson recorded 81 combined tackles and picked up a fumble recovery. However, he went through his season playing 14 games without picking up an interception, and he only recorded one pass defense.
The latter statistic is only recorded when the defender tips or blocks the ball, and can be very misleading (Philadelphia’s Bradley Fletcher led the league last year with 22), but that is still an absurdly low figure for a starter.
Goldson’s skill set lies in his ability to make big plays as an enforcer in the secondary, but while his physicality gave the 49ers a spark during his time in San Francisco, he was often out of position in the secondary in Tampa Bay and weighed the defense down.
Dashon Goldson also has the tendency to be over aggressive and connect on helmet-to-helmet hits that would make Brandon Meriweather blush. His big hits were curtailed in 2014 as he started to whiff on more tackles.
Finding a suitor will be near impossible for the Buccaneers unless they find a way to eat away at some other teams salary in the process. There is not a team in the NFL that would be willing to pay Goldson his salary without dumping a salary burden of their own onto the Buccaneers.
Of course, now Buccaneers fans can begin to see head coach Lovie Smith’s master plan: reunite with his Bears players.
Chris Conte and Major Wright are an excellent place to start. As Bears fans can attest, the duo of Conte and Wright at safety is a solid pairing as long as you don’t need tackling, range, coverage skills, smart reads or any hope of a playoff season. Otherwise, they’re golden.
Kellen Davis and J’Marcus Webb are currently free agents, Lovie. Why not further your plan and pick them up?
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