Credit: Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE

The 49ers will hold their first mandatory minicamp over three days starting on Tuesday at team headquarters in Santa Clara.  This will be Jim Harbaugh’s first mandatory minicamp with 49er players as everyone was locked out by the NFL this time last year.

Currently, the 49ers have a 90-man offseason roster and all but two players are expected to attend the three-day minicamp.  The most obvious person who will be missing from minicamp is safety Dashon Goldson who is holding out for the right long-term contract.  The 49ers have until July 16 to sign the franchise player to an extension; otherwise, Goldson will be locked in for a one-year deal at around $6.2 million.

The other player who will not be in attendance at minicamp is rookie running back LaMichael James.  The reason for James’ absence not only from the upcoming minicamp, but from all of the voluntary workouts held during the offseason, is because he is still not eligible to workout with the team.  NFL rules mandate that a rookie cannot join a team in offseason workouts until his school has held its graduation or the player has graduated.  Since the University of Oregon, where James attended, is on the quarter’s system their graduation will be held June 18.  Many are expecting James to make an immediate impact this season for the 49ers, however, the running back will have a lot of catching up to do and will have learning curve because of the NFL rule.  Yet another reason to hate a college using the quarters system.

Even though first-round pick A.J. Jenkins has not signed a contract with the 49ers, he will still be at the mandatory minicamp because he signed a waiver injury which allows him to participate.  Gotta love the dedication Jenkins is showing by being at the voluntary and mandatory minicamps even though he has not signed a contract.  Jenkins remains the last 49ers draft pick unsigned.

Credit: Kelley L Cox-US PRESSWIRE

Friday marked the end of the 49ers second week of organized team activities (OTA’s).  One player missing from the 49ers current 90-man roster was safety Dashon Goldson, who has not yet signed his franchise tender as he tries to acquire a long-term contract from the team.  In Goldson’s absence, Jim Harbaugh has rookie safety Trenton Robinson and C.J. Spillman taking all of the first-team reps at practice.

The 49ers have placed the franchise tag on Goldson and he can sign his one-year tender offer worth $6.2 million at any time.  Although it is not the norm for franchise tagged players, Goldson could technically join the 49ers for offseason workouts whenever he wants.  Don’t expect that to happen any time soon, however, the longer Goldson holds out and misses OTA’s, the more he risks losing his starting job.

When a player has the franchise tag placed on them, the negotiations of a long-term deal becomes a game of who needs who more.  In this case the 49ers have the upper hand because they would be comfortable with either Spillman or Robinson starting in place of Goldson if he continues to holdout.  Also, with Harbaugh as the head coach he will not hesitate to find other players to fill the safety role who are eager to prove they are starting material.  Those who attend OTA’s and training camp is where Harbaugh will look first to fill starting roles and that includes at safety.

Goldson had his chance last off-season to sign a five-year, $25 million deal but he instead balked at the 49ers offer.  Without receiving any better offers from other teams, he rejoined the 49ers for 2011 signing a one-year deal.  Now CSNBayArea.com is reporting Goldson wants a deal similar to what Chargers safety Eric Weddle signed last year which was a five-year, $40 million deal.  That is much higher than what Goldson received last year from the 49ers, but he had his chance for a long-term deal.

The safety had a great year with six interceptions and his first Pro Bowl appearance but he not worth the money Weddle signed.  If Goldson thinks he can twist the 49ers into offering him a similar long-term deal, he should get a new agent.  All he and his agent have to do is look at the last two franchise tag holdouts the 49ers experienced with Julian Peterson and Aubrayo Franklin.  Both did not end with the team caving by offering a long-term contract, but with the two players signing their tender deals late in training camp.  The sooner this ends the better for both sides, however, Goldson has more to lose than the 49ers by holding out.

Check out Bill Dwinells’ thoughts on the situation: Dashon Goldson-Gate 2012: What is the End Game?

The 49ers obviously saw this problem coming this off season, they drafted Trenton Robinson from Michigan State in the 6th round of the draft and also grabbed 3 other undrafted rookie safeties in Mark Legree from Appalachian State, Colin Jones from Texas Christian and Michael Thomas from Stanford (where he played under Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio). The addition of these 4 safeties as well as the increased reps that backup safety C.J. Spillman is receiving due to Dashon’s abscence from OTA’s, means that this is not something that is going to shake the 49ers organization to it’s core. I believe this will be a “next man up” scenario for the Niners. This is not a position of a lot of depth for the 49ers but it is a position that has a lot of promise, albeit under the radar. When you enter a season with as much hype and expectations as the 49ers have this season, question marks and hold outs at a particular position are not good for your team. Having the Dashon Goldson conundrum hanging over your head could be just the distraction this team doesn’t need.

I think that it is almost a given that Dashon will sign his $6.2 million tender before the season but at what cost? More than the financial cost there is the distraction caused by however long this hold out will be. Should the 49ers be doing more to get Goldson a long term deal? 6 interceptions and his first Pro Bowl after taking a pay cut to come back to the team in 2011 says yes, they should be paying this man his money already. On the other hand, an NFC Championship game in which he was almost invisible (5 tackles, 1 pass defended) and a more than generous Franchise Tag offer says maybe he should just sign it and worry about long term next year or test the free agent market in 2013. It would be hard to argue that Dashon will get his money one way or the other, some one will pay him and why shouldn’t it be the 49ers? Safety is the one position of concern for this team if you wanted to nit-pick about it. While yes, Goldson did have 6 interceptions last season, the 49ers ranked 16th against the pass and would like to improve that statistic this season with another solid year and some better coverage from their safeties when it comes to the deep ball (they allowed 48 passes of 20 or more yards and 12 passes of 40 or more yards, 5th worst in the NFL). Dashon is definitely a hard hitter, with a pension for causing fumbles and coming up in run support, but that does make him vulnerable when it comes to playaction.

Let’s be honest, Dashon’s good plays are more visible than his bad plays from last season because when he made a bad play most of the time the rest of the defense helped out and saved him. I am not implying in any way that he had more bad than good plays but take a look at some film from that NFC Championship and tell me that Dashon didn’t look lost on a lot of plays and make some bad moves at the ball when he should have just played sound defense and made the tackle and/or batted the ball away. To me, it seemed as if he was trying to make a highlight reel on every play, which is something that he shouldn’t do, just make basic, smart football plays and the whole team will be on a highlight reel, at the White House, giving Barack Obama a jersey and hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.

So, what should the 49ers do here? Honestly, I say get him to sign the tender and then if you think that C.J. Spillman and the rookies you decide to keep (most likely Robinson and Thomas) can handle the backup role then trade him. There will be a market for him, either for a pick or two or a player. The problem is, if Dashon gets labeled as a head case, or a diva thanks to this hold out, would any team touch him? Or even talk to the Niners about taking him? Probably not. Once a player gets labeled as a problem, most teams won’t touch him, unless you are Cincinnati or Dallas (burn). So even though I think the 49ers would probably be better off without Dashon Goldson given the current circumstances, I imagine he will sign the tender within the next month and then test free agency next year. It’s sad too because after what he did last year I had a lot of respect for Dashon and without him putting up a fuss over this tender, I still would. If he has signed the tender with a promise from the 49ers about negotiating a long term deal during the season, then I don’t think we would even be talking about this. As it stands however, it’s the classic scenario of Dashon thinking the Niners owe him something and the 49ers thinking the opposite. Typically in these situations the team comes out on top unfortunately for Dashon. That’s why he is better off just signing the tender now and take what is (in most people’s opinion) a pretty lucrative contract. Even if it is only for one season.