Chargers sign Aubrayo Franklin to a 1-year contract

[ChrisPozz]

Financial terms undisclosed.

 

[Bemular]

I was wondering where or if he would land

 

[NinerSickness]

Part of me wanted him back at the right price. It'd be nice to have a little more depth on the DL and maybe spell Soap a little more often.

 

[Bemular]

Part of me wanted him back at the right price. It'd be nice to have a little more depth on the DL and maybe spell Soap a little more often.

Yes - that and have an effective back-up plan in case we lose Soap at the end of the year.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Franklin serves as cautionary tale for Goldson

 

[Bemular]

Another very shrewd move by our administrators.

I like Dashon and hope he can rise above the frustration that often and understandably accompanies being tagged. I think he can/will be very special in this league for the next 4 or 5 years, but he first must play his cards right in getting over this hurdle.

 

[bigninerfan56]

I really liked Franklin, but it turned out to be a great move by our front office not to sign him long term. I like Goldson, but I don't think he's great. I'd be very cautious in giving him the contract that Eric Weddle got. I don't think Eric Weddle is worth it either.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

I like Goldson as more of a SS in today's NFL. He's decent in coverage, but not great, and plays the run fairly well. If we could have paired him up with an Earl Thomas type, that would have been fantastic.

I like Whitner's attitude, and he's a very good SS, but neither he nor Goldson is as good in coverage as I would like. That's alright given our division, but I think our Ss are one of the reasons teams hung up a lot of passing yards on us, relatively speaking.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Re: Franklin, I'm shocked he fell off so quickly. The Saints really needed a presence against the run, and he was pretty invisible last year. I do think DL and OL can struggle to stay in shape more than others if they don't get into camp, so hopefully even if Goldson stays away he'll stay in shape. As memory serves he missed the whole offseason and the first game or two last year and obviously was not terribly affected.

 

[Bemular]

I really liked Franklin, but it turned out to be a great move by our front office not to sign him long term. I like Goldson, but I don't think he's great. I'd be very cautious in giving him the contract that Eric Weddle got. I don't think Eric Weddle is worth it either.

I think you make a lot of very good points here Big. I completely agree with your point about Weddle being overpaid, but I think what we are seeing is a complete transformation of the position including both positional responsibilities as well as positional value.

Over the last few years we have seen the position of Safety evolve from a traditional two-role position into a more demanding and versatile one-role position. Add to that the (re)evolution of the passing game which now includes the use of bigger, faster and more versatile TE's and it makes perfect sense.

Safety's today need to be bigger, stronger, faster and more instinctive than ever before and while I completely agree that Dashon has not arrived yet he is a prototypical Safety for today’s game with not too far to climb to reach the top, IMO.

 

[Bemular]

I like Goldson as more of a SS in today's NFL. He's decent in coverage, but not great, and plays the run fairly well. If we could have paired him up with an Earl Thomas type, that would have been fantastic.

I like Whitner's attitude, and he's a very good SS, but neither he nor Goldson is as good in coverage as I would like. That's alright given our division, but I think our Ss are one of the reasons teams hung up a lot of passing yards on us, relatively speaking.

Decent? Decent to me is slightly above average (top 12-14) and Goldson is definitely better than slightly above average. I wouldn't move Goldson from FS either. He has all the intangibles to be a great center-fielder.

In our style of bend-don’t-break passing defense, yards are not as meaningful as points and we did pretty well on not giving up points. That said, I would like to see some improvement on our 3rd down passing defense.

I am pretty damn excited to see what the same cast can do across the board in our second year under Fangio.

 

[MHSL82]

I really liked Franklin, but it turned out to be a great move by our front office not to sign him long term. I like Goldson, but I don't think he's great. I'd be very cautious in giving him the contract that Eric Weddle got. I don't think Eric Weddle is worth it either.

College is college, so I won't speak to Weddles' NFL career as far as capabilities, past performance, worth now, etc., but in college he was amazing. In addition to his safety duties, he played running back and consistently got good yardage, he was a receiver that could get some separation, he returned punts a few times usually well, was a good blocker (not o-line, of course), and even passed for a few TDs (or at least big plays). Don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming him to be the best college player or best safety in college or anything, but he was multidimensional. I haven't followed his NFL career so I don't know if he's strictly safety and/or special teams, but I know he's had some statistical success. Not debating whether it's worth 8 million a year, though. I mean, that's basically what Alex Smith gets and he does more by definition as a QB than Weddle could do as a safety (though a timely INT can change a game as much as a TD could).

 

[MHSL82]

Decent? Decent to me is slightly above average (top 12-14) and Goldson is definitely better than slightly above average. I wouldn't move Goldson from FS either. He has all the intangibles to be a great center-fielder.

In our style of bend-don’t-break passing defense, yards are not as meaningful as points and we did pretty well on not giving up points. That said, I would like to see some improvement on our 3rd down passing defense.

I am pretty damn excited to see what the same cast can do across the board in our second year under Fangio.

I agree. People think the defense will decline overall because once you get so high people assume it's your peak. However, while INTs may go up or down, I expect our emphasis on limiting points more than yards won't change, and if we can eliminate one more third down conversion per game, that could be huge, especially if the offense can convert a few more per game. That one third down stop near on the opponents 20, prevents the other 80, huge - just like one more third down conversion by our offense could get us rolling or in FG range. I expect yards to naturally go down as you get more used to your defensive scheme. It all adds up. Of course, regression adds up, too so we have to be careful.

Independant question but related, which do you think, when talking about potential with our personnel last year, was limited most by the lockout? It's talked about on offense a lot, but since we know the plays we're running, whatever we do should be almost as efficient as it's going to get. It obviously won't be as good as a full off-season, but close enough. We'll just have fewer plays. Whereas, the defense, I think is easier to get into standard mode than it is for the offense, but as far as potential, missing practice due to the lockout could mean missing the big play by inches or miscommunication. In other words, on offense we attack and defense we react. It seems less preparation could effect reaction greatly, but we know how much offenses suffer, too.

Our defenses aren't as varied as offensive plays, of course, because our defense is designed to react to whatever the opponent's offense could do, with of course, situational and educated guesses guiding which way we lean. I've heard Alex numerous times talk about what the defense gives you, so with more practice we may be able to hide what "we're giving" better, which could help against standard QBs immensely (though, I can't say we weren't already doing that).

 

[NinerSickness]

I really liked Franklin, but it turned out to be a great move by our front office not to sign him long term. I like Goldson, but I don't think he's great. I'd be very cautious in giving him the contract that Eric Weddle got. I don't think Eric Weddle is worth it either.

I agree with every word of this, and if you said the bold part a couple of years ago you would've been tarred and feathered (I'm still picking the feathers off of me).

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Decent? Decent to me is slightly above average (top 12-14) and Goldson is definitely better than slightly above average. I wouldn't move Goldson from FS either. He has all the intangibles to be a great center-fielder.

In our style of bend-don’t-break passing defense, yards are not as meaningful as points and we did pretty well on not giving up points. That said, I would like to see some improvement on our 3rd down passing defense.

I am pretty damn excited to see what the same cast can do across the board in our second year under Fangio.

All-around I think he's good. For FSs in terms of coverage, I don't know that I'd have him in the top-8 or so. Maybe better than "decent," but I don't think he's great in coverage.

No major complaints based on his season last year, but I still think he can be a liability in coverage. And I'd be somewhat surprised if he matches his INT numbers.

Totally agree re: a second year with Fangio. I'm expecting some interesting blitzes, maybe more pass rushing by Bowman and Willis.

 

[bigninerfan56]

I agree with every word of this, and if you said the bold part a couple of years ago you would've been tarred and feathered (I'm still picking the feathers off of me).

The funny part is that I was one that was really in favor of signing him long term, because of his position, but kudos to our front office for locking up a guy like McDonald and moving Soap over to NT.

 

[NinerSickness]

but kudos to our front office for locking up a guy like McDonald and moving Soap over to NT.

That was one of the best signings the Niners have had in years.

 

[threelittleturds]

The funny part is that I was one that was really in favor of signing him long term, because of his position, but kudos to our front office for locking up a guy like McDonald and moving Soap over to NT.

HAHA, I was too. Just goes to show why I am just some dude on a message board and not a GM in the NFL

 

[Bemular]

All-around I think he's good. For FSs in terms of coverage, I don't know that I'd have him in the top-8 or so. Maybe better than "decent," but I don't think he's great in coverage.

No major complaints based on his season last year, but I still think he can be a liability in coverage. And I'd be somewhat surprised if he matches his INT numbers.

Totally agree re: a second year with Fangio. I'm expecting some interesting blitzes, maybe more pass rushing by Bowman and Willis.

It's tough to put a label on Goldson as far as how good he is in pass-pro. But if we look at Int's & PD's he was easily top five last year and is arguably top-ten over the past 3-years.

What is difficult to measure is TD's allowed and DG certainly autographed a couple TD's last year, but without knowing this stat for the other FS's in the league you can't rank him.

Overall, I think Goldson is a solid/very good FS in both run & pass and I think he is on the rise. With that said, I'm thinking he will get his six INT's this year; so, now that you're back in NorCal maybe we should throw a liquid wager on our expectations...

Yes, I agree with the blitz schemes we will likely see this year and just the added creativity from Fangio.