Washington Redskins: Grading Dashon Goldson Acquisition

Desperate for safety help, the Washington Redskins finally made a move to acquire a big-name safety this offseason, sending a 2016 sixth-round pick for a 2016 seventh-round pick and safety Dashon Goldson from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After adding former Seattle Seahawks backup Jeron Johnson, the Redskins have prioritized the position this offseason, but it’s unclear if they’ll get any results after making both moves.

The decision to trade for Goldson is particularly polarizing, because even though the Redskins didn’t give up much of anything, they could have easily obtained him for free if the Buccaneers decided to cut ties with him. Since $4 million of his 2015 base salary was guaranteed, the Bucs are on the hook for that money while the Redskins will only have to pay Goldson $3.5 million before upcoming non-guaranteed amounts of $7.5 million and $6.75 million in 2016 and 2017.

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In short, the Redskins aren’t making as much of a financial commitment as some of us initially feared, since it doesn’t seem like they’ll have to guarantee Goldson any money. That’s key, because Goldson has been flat-out horrible ever since he left the San Francisco 49ers to sign a big contract with the Buccaneers, and it’s clear that he isn’t consistent enough or good enough at covering to be a free safety in this league.

Per Pro Football Focus, Goldson missed 15 and 20 tackles in his two seasons in Tampa Bay, and he has just one interception and nine passes defended in those two campaigns. Touted as a playmaking safety, Goldson has made no plays, though maybe he’s been “playmaking” in the sense that he’s gifting the opposition opportunities.

Goldson’s 2014 season was particularly abhorrent, as he defended just one pass, missed 20 tackles, and was involved in one turnover (a fumble recovery, which is much less valuable due to luck factors than an interception or a fumble forced). You could argue that he was the league’s worst safety last season, because only rookie Calvin Pryor missed tackles at a higher rate and only six safeties gave up more yards per snap in coverage.

To be completely honest, Goldson did nothing well last season, and even though the Buccaneers are now left with Chris Conte and either Major Wright or Brad McDougald as their starting safeties, getting rid of Goldson is addition by subtraction for them. He was so poor in his two seasons with the team that the Bucs were willing to take a mildly higher late-round pick and take the $4 million cap hit, as opposed to keeping Goldson around. That’s a pretty damning indictment of failure.

That said, the Redskins don’t exactly have much at the safety position themselves, and it’s to the point where the likely starting safeties could easily be the two new acquisitions in Goldson and Johnson.

Although Goldson has been playing as a free safety, his issues in coverage make him better-suited as a strong safety (ditto with his 4.65 forty time). That way, he can focus more on powerful hits over the middle, gambling on plays, and coming up to support the run.

Of course, you can’t help but wonder if the Washington Redskins will simply play him at free safety anyway or ask him to do more than he should in coverage, because they have a tailor-made in-the-box safety in Duke Ihenacho, whose split skill-set is clear at this point.

The thing about the Goldson trade is that it isn’t a good move or a bad move, and it isn’t shrewd or stupid. It’s a not a deal you can attach easy labels to, but if you had to choose one word to describe it, then that word would be “risk”. It’s a risk. In the grand scheme of things, it isn’t a big one, because moving down from a sixth to a seventh-round pick next year isn’t a big deal.

But it’s still a risk, because Goldson could end up being a disaster in Washington, just like he was for two seasons with the Buccaneers. However, if he finds his form again, then he could be exactly what this team was looking for at one of the safety spots. After all, he played well enough in San Francisco behind a great defense that allowed him to have more freedom, and he earned that bloated payday from Tampa because of how well he played with the 49ers.

The Redskins defense isn’t good enough to give Dashon Goldson that kind of leeway and cover, but they do have guys like Jason Hatcher, Ryan Kerrigan, and Chris Culliver to help Goldson out. If the Redskins can find a way to put less stress on Goldson in coverage, then this could be a great deal for them. The Buccaneers should never have used Goldson so far away from the line of scrimmage, and you can’t help but feel that they were asking for that contract to blow up in their faces.

Oct 26, 2014; Tampa, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers free safety Dashon Goldson (38) against the Minnesota Vikings during the second half at Raymond James Stadium. Minnesota Vikings defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 19-13. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Scot McCloughan did his best to bring in a cheap, veteran, bounce-back flier to potentially fill a big need at the safety position, so now it’s up to the coaching staff to see if they can get Goldson to bounce back.

There will be pressure to move him into a traditional free safety role in order to shore up this team’s coverage, but that probably isn’t what’s best for Goldson.

We’ll see if he can fill a need for the Redskins, or if this decision ends up in Goldson’s second disappointing stint with a team. The cost of the deal is hefty when it comes to Goldson’s cap hit after 2015, but they don’t seem to have any guaranteed money on the hook and will only have to pay him $3.75 million this year.

But it looks like the Bucs might not be on the hook for that $4 million in guaranteed money, and even if they are, the Redskins could have waited for Goldson to hit the open market.

If the Bucs were willing to trade him for just about nothing, then they were probably just going to release him anyway. The Redskins could have signed Goldson on the open market for cheaper and on a one-year, flier-type deal with their own worked-in incentives.

Final Grade: C-

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