Getty ImagesEarlier Thursday, we passed along word that Donte Whitner had agreed to terms with the Bengals. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported it; ESPN reported it; and Whitner even confirmed it on Twitter.
Something happened in the meantime to change Whitner’s mind.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports Whitner will now go the 49ers on a three-year, $11 million contract with $4.5 million guaranteed. Clearly, that must have been a better offer than what Whitner was getting from Cincinnati.
This helps to explain why the 49ers were so desperate to get rid of Taylor Mays, although we suspect Mays was going to get the boot regardless.
Both the 49ers and Bengals had weak-looking safety groups heading into the day, which makes the loss sting even more for Cincinnati.
Channel Finder
Smart man! Cincinnati is where NFL players work off your debt to society.
That may have saved your career Whitner
How could ANYONE root for the Bengals with Mike Brown running the show? What a wreck. The guy can’t do anything right.
another good signing for SF. hes not a big time playmaker but he is a big time tackler and he is steady in coverage. Whitner, Smith, Williams and Spillman make a nice group of safeties. later Taylor.
he realized Cinncinati was in Ohio….
Is it possible for the Bengals off-season get any worse?
I suppose they could re-sign Akili Smith
49ers hahahahahahaha they overpaid to get him away from the bengals
Bungles got stiff armed!!!
LOL at the bungles… can’t do anything right
Cincy loses? Now that never happens.
Son of a mother!!!
It’s The Shaun Rogers debacle all over again!!!!
Good move, Donte! Maybe the bengals will trade the 49ers a 2nd or 3rd round pick for Mays. ha
Wow the 49ers made an out of the blue free agent signing. Quite frankly I’m shocked, and I guess I can now say enjoy Cincinatti Goldson!
Are the 49ers really going to cut a 2nd rd pick from one year back ? That’s worse than the Pat White pick then.
There shouldn’t be a “t” in his last name. The Bills are way better off without this burnt toast “Whiner”… All he does is give up big plays then blame everyone else. Good luck with him ruining your locker room 49ers.
That’s the fastest change of direction move Witner has made since he joined the Bills as a rookie.
Bwahahhahahahahahah the Bungles bungle it again.
We were slated to start Reggie Smith as one if our safeties, so Whitner stands as a major upgrade. I’m pretty happy with the acquisition as a 49er faithful
Thats actually a photo of Henne after the “we want Orton” chants began.
Don’t fret Bengals fans, this guy is a bum. Can’t cover to save his life and his tackles are always at least 10 yards downfield.
Poor Bengals……
hahaaha wow cincy cant catch a break
Bengals fans, you should just kill yourselves.
He just saved his sanity….
And Let the Bengal bashing begin…..Still believe they have made some good signings in the past few days and will not be as bad as the 0 and 16 everyone is predicting. Heres an idea…..Trade Carson to San Francisco for Taylor Mayes….never mind:(
The Bungles and Forgotten-Niners fighting over a player the Bills didn’t even want. It’s gonna be a long year in Cincinnati and San Fran…
A week ago, Niner fans (including me) were cursing the front office for their lack of action. Looking at it today, we have upgraded at every position we lost. Nice job, guys… you have now earned the benefit of the doubt.
49ers didn’t learn their lesson from Clements?
Trust me, the bengals are better off without him. My 5 year old has more maturity than this clown. Dont fret Bengal fans, you dodged a bullet. Check out youtube to watch donte get juked out of his jock by LT last year.
wonderboy18 says: Aug 4, 2011 5:19 PM
49ers hahahahahahaha they overpaid to get him away from the bengals
—————————————————–
3.5 mil a year for a starting safety is overpaying? (assuming that he’s gonna start) hmmm what cheap team do you root for? the bengals? Goldson has the same numbers as this guy and wants 5+ a year.
Guys, guys. I think the real news here is that the Bengals actually made an effort to sign someone.
Granted, not enough of an effort, but that’s more life than I’ve seen from them all offseason. $40 mil to spend and nothing? I feel for you, Bengals fans.
I love this signing, and I choose to forget that our last DB from the Bills was a bust.
For those of you posting “so long Goldson”, not so fast there genius…
Goldson, like Whitner is a young, solid player that we want to keep. Serriously, he is a play maker who was hurt last year, but I loved his 2009 play.
Goldson, unlike Whitner, is a Free Safety.
Sign Goldson (Madeiu Williams is good for depth and veteran leadership, but a horrible signing if the intent is to start him), and I present to you the much improved SF Pass defense:
Starting CBs: Rogers, Spencer
Starting FS: Goldson
Starting SS: Whitner
Williams and the upstart Reggie Smith backing up both safeties. Still need a decent nickel corner, but hopefully we can find him on the current roster.
mataug says:Aug 4, 2011 5:23 PM
Are the 49ers really going to cut a 2nd rd pick from one year back ? That’s worse than the Pat White pick then.
______________________________
Still not as bad as Josh McDaniels effectively trading Earl Thomas for Alphonso Smith.
AHHHHH hahahahahaha!
Donte’s Wife: “You signed where? Uh-uh, no sir…you get your agent on the phone and tell him Ain’t no waaaay we goin’ to Cininatti….Oh no you di’ent…”
Donte: “OK.”
Absolutely classless.
Shouldnt surprise anyone if you’ve ever read this knuckledraggers twitter account.
I’m pretty sure Mike Brown is probably a mailman baby, because its pretty obvious he doesn’t have one ounce of his Daddy’s blood in him. The clue phone has been ringing on his desk for over two decades. Damn shame for Bengal fans that man will never pick it up. As a Saints fan, you have my sympathies. We had an equally bad one before Benson bought the team. The only thing that type of owner wants is money. The game doesn’t matter one iota. He’ll continue to slum off the NFL deals for as long as its profitable and then and only then will he sell the team. I bet if the NFL allowed you to trade players for straight up cash he’d trade Carson Palmer in a heartbeat.
LoL…
Mike Brown must have his head spinning.. After all… He expected Whitner to honor the contract he agreed to (but didn’t sign)
What happened is the Bengals sent one of their Tight Ends to tell Donte the news and Donte could not find the Tight End.
San Fran, they sent their message via Twitter and Donte is all over that.
That even made Carson Palmer laugh.
Only Donte would do this, only. He’s confirmed the playoffs for the Bills as well, so the Cincy thing was par for the course.
Someone in the Bengals front office must have edited Donte’s Wikipidea page, it’s pretty sad what they did !
Right now Carson Palmer is at home smiling.
i was gonna say! wow smart choice!
i guess a man’s word doesn’t mean jack.
Sign Atari Bigby.
I love the image of Donte, it’s one of his signature moves – hip checking a player who is already down. Don’t forget his other specialties too -
Making ALL opposing TE’s look like all pros
Getting run over by running backs
Being an idiot on twitter
If a tight end on your fantasy is going up against the 49ers, start him! Always worked for me and this is from a Bills fan.
I guess this explains the league wide email about trading gaylor mays. so much for making seattle and others regret skipping you in the draft.
he probably showed up to sign his deal, took a look around, and thought better of it. who knows if marvin will even be the coach next year. he is working on a one year deal as far as i know.
Funny how when this was first reported people made fun of the bengals for signing him.. now he has changed his mind and people make fun of the bengals for not signing him… Not sure where the logic is here… Guess people just like to hate on the bengals…
Just sayin’
mmmmm, bengals, 49ers.
you say tomatoe, i say tomato.
Goodbye Twitner! We never enjoyed your mediocre play, your big mouth or you retarded tweets!
I’m glad Donte Twitter is gone. He wasn’t bad, he was just annoying.
Thank God I’m a Bengals fan. While the Bengals will not sniff a Super Bowl any time soon, it’s great that at least they are entertaining.
I also would have signed with San Francisco.
upgrade from Reggie Smith, but Dashon is gone.. 9ers need a FS, but unfortunately, good ones are gone!
@ marcsasharc says:
Aug 4, 2011 5:16 PM
another good signing for SF. hes not a big time playmaker but he is a big time tackler and he is steady in coverage. Whitner, Smith, Williams and Spillman make a nice group of safeties. later Taylor.
____________________________
Obvously you know nothing about football or Whitner….he was voted by all the experts as the worst tackler in the NFL at his starting position. He has 5 picks since 2006…..2006 bro!! Ed Reed had 8 in 10 games last year. Whitner is a bum….I believe if you look at the film, he actually broke Poz’s forearm that one year because he just “back” tackels. He had a 140 tackels last year and they are from all piling on……he stinks period!!!
I have always said that taylor mays should gain weight bout 20 pounds and become a MLB cause i never thought he wouldbe a safety in the NFL
Guess we’ll find out just how good this guy is on September 25th at Paul Brown Stadium.
I suspect the Bengals could be dialling up #20 several times………..