Dashon Goldson: worst contract for a safety

The All–Bad Contracts TeamAfter covering the league’s most valuable contracts earlier this week, it’s time to move on and pillory the worst deals in the NFL. Now, while it’s easy to do this solely for the sake of ridicule, it’s not my goal; I’ve found that bad football contracts often fit into one of five categories, and by examining those archetypes among the league’s current contracts, we can actually learn about which sorts of deals teams shouldn’t make before they actually sign them.As I wrote about in last year’s All–Bad Contract Team article, here are the five contract stories to watch out for:The Old-CBA Rookie Deal: Contracts signed by players taken in the top five of the NFL draft under the old collective bargaining agreement, which includes players selected as recently as 2010. These deals often made players like Jake Long among the highest-paid at their respective positions in league history before ever stepping on the field. This contract archetype is actually soon to disappear, as the last stragglers from the 2010 NFL draft will have their rookie contracts expire by the end of 2015.The Marginal Talent: When the salary cap remains relatively stagnant, the middle class gets squeezed. When the cap rises dramatically, as it did this past season, teams overpay replacement-level or otherwise marginal players who are readily available even without paying a premium. If a player was available on the waiver wire the previous year and you weren’t interested in bringing him in for the league minimum, chances are that he’s not worth $10 million in guaranteed money 12 months later.Paying for the Outlier: Watch out for those career years, teams. When a player who averages two touchdowns per season over four years puts together a 10-touchdown campaign, don’t pay him like he’s going to score 10 touchdowns a year from that point forward. This was a classic Jaguars blunder under Gene Smith, as they made that move with Marcedes Lewis and Laurent Robinson. The same stands for the oft-injured player who manages to stay on the field for 16 games and gets paid like he’ll never miss a game again. It’s one thing to sign a healthy player and have him tear his ACL, like Geno Atkins, and another to give a long-term extension to a player who is constantly on the shelf. Health is a skill, too.System Guy Out of System: Players don’t produce in a vacuum; different schemes and surrounding personnel dramatically influence what a player can or can’t do. The classic blunder here is paying for a second or third receiver from a great offense and employing him to produce the same numbers as the top wideout for your abysmal passing attack.Ever Fallen in Love With a Player You Shouldn’t Have? Perhaps the toughest contract to avoid. Teams too easily fall in love with the players they’ve nurtured and pay a premium to avoid having them leave town. You want to retain some of your talent, of course, but when the price tag doesn’t match the player’s talent level, you have to trust your ability to draft and develop a rookie to take his place. This is the mistake Jerry Jones loves to make.The All–Bad Contracts Starting DefenseSafety: Dashon Goldson, BuccaneersContract Flaw: System Guy Out of SystemThe 49ers have one of the league’s best defenses, but bad things seem to happen to the players who leave Patrick Willis’s warm embrace each offseason. Players like Aubrayo Franklin and Takeo Spikes have failed to impress elsewhere after succeeding in the Bay Area, and Goldson might be the next player on that list. After forming a big-hitting partnership with Donte Whitner, Goldson hit the free-agent market in 2013 and finally got the long-term deal he craved, signing a massive five-year, $41.3 million deal with the Buccaneers. He spent his first season with the team overrunning plays and seemingly daring the NFL to suspend him for his illegal hits. The NFL finally obliged in November. The fourth-highest-paid safety in football, Goldson still has $9 million in guaranteed money remaining on his deal over the next two seasons.