Well, the 49ers finally signed the best corner on the market ... unfortunately, they did it after the previous four or five best corners on the market were signed to other teams. Bringing in Carlos Rogers is a solid move any day of the week, but one has to wonder just how big of players the 49ers actually were for guys like Nnamdi Asomugha and Antonio Cromartie. They were in the Asomugha sweepstakes for some time, before dropping out near the end, by all accounts. Did they offer a good number for Asomugha, but he signed with a contender, or were they simply not big players from the get go?
It's not that Rogers is a consolation prize, it's just ... well, it's kind of that he's a consolation prize. It's not a nice way to put things, but it's the truth. Should they have broken the bank for Asomugha? No, the new regime probably shouldn't have paid a 30-year-old corner what it would have taken to keep him in the Bay Area, but it would have been nice for the team be in the running for guys like Cromartie, Jonathan Joseph and Chris Carr.
One way or another, the 49ers look to have Rogers on a one-year deal for around four million. That's been the standard contract for this offseason (with varying dollar amounts) as players try and get signed, get into camp, and get playing sooner rather than later. He'll come in and be the team's number one corner and be matched up against guys like Sidney Rice and Larry Fitzgerald twice a year. Is he up to the challenge?
He had better be, because the 49ers' secondary is looking to be its weakest unit in 2011 by a rather large margin. Rogers is a step in the right direction, but the team would do well to bring in another corner or a top safety, which Madieu Williams is not. Re-signing Dashon Goldson would be a good move at this point.
Goldson had a Twitter outburst recently, in which he claimed to not "be scared" of the 49ers signing of Williams, and had alluded to the fact that he doesn't know where he'll end up, listing the 49ers and Cowboys as potential destinations. Well, the Cowboys just re-signed Gerald Sensabaugh, so they don't appear to be in the running. Last we heard, the Oakland Raiders were interested, but that was at the beginning of free agency.
That's all there is too it ... Goldson is close to being an essential signing at this point in regards to the 49ers' secondary in 2011.