With the 4pm franchise tag deadline closing in for NFL teams, there was some positive news today regarding a new deal for wide receiver Wes Welker.

It appears the Patriots are making progress toward a new contract with wide receiver Wes Welker. (FILE:USPresswire)

According to CSNNE’s Tom Curran “progress has been made” toward an extension to hopefully keep him in New England, which is good news for a team that already has some questions at that position.

Welker is coming off his 5th career 100 reception season, surpassing Marvin Harrison and Jerry Rice for a new NFL record.  He accounted for 72 of the team’s 256 receiving first downs, and was also the team’s 3rd down receiving leader having caught 30 receptions – nearly three times more than any other Patriots’ receiver.

He signed the franchise tag prior to last season but so far it appears unlikely they won’t apply the tag later today.  In the event they’re able to secure Welker for the foreseeable future they can turn their attention to hopefully building some additional depth behind him.  According to recent reports it’s beginning to sound like Brandon Lloyd’s future may be in doubt, which is bad news considering his contribution to the team last season.

While Lloyd may not have been a guy who got much in terms of yards after the catch, he still finished with 74 catches for 911 yards and was second to Welker with 50 first downs.  That’s nothing to sneeze at, and it’s still production that will need to be replaced as he did a decent job outside the numbers.

For now we’ll have to wait and see how things play out with Welker but the good news is it certainly seems that things are at least headed in the right direction.

It takes about six and a half hours to fly from Boston to Los Angeles, covering a stretch of approximately 2,606 air miles across the country in what is essentially the longest span a person can travel on an airplane within the continental United States.

According to Peter King of SI.com, it was a flight like that one which Robert Kraft and Tom Brady spent together that ultimately helped to initiate Brady’s recent contract extension that will keep him in New England for what will hopefully be the remainder of his career.

Brady will return in 2013 under contract for what should be the rest of his career. (FILE:USPresswire)

The flight happened shortly after the Patriots season came to an abrupt end against the Baltimore Ravens, with Kraft admitting that putting his “fan hat” on, he wanted to make sure that Brady never repeated the history of what Joe Montana or Brett Favre did by leaving their teams and finishing their careers elsewhere.  Players like Brady obviously don’t come around often, and keeping him here until the end was a goal that Kraft wanted to make sure the two sides figured out.  If not, Kraft knows that Brady would have gotten an offer from someone else.

“If Tom Brady played out this current contract and left us, there was no doubt in my mind that someone out there would pay him top dollar, and they should, for his ability, his leadership and his unselfishness,” Kraft told King.

“I was just trying to stay ahead of the curve. If we were going to have to pay him elite-quarterback money and have elite-quarterback cap numbers, I just didn’t think we would be able to build a team. We don’t want to have a team where we’re paying 18 to 20 percent to a player on the cap. I wanted to do something elegant that would work for everybody. I had been talking to him off and on for maybe 18 months, about how I wanted him to finish his career here, and about how we both have to be smart about it. I just really want him to end his career a Patriot.”

The 35-year old veteran is coming off of a season where he finished 401-for-637 for 4827 yards and 34 touchdowns, which is the second highest yardage total of his career.  He also became the first player in NFL history to throw a touchdown in all 16 regular season games for 3 straight seasons, and will be taking a 48 straight regular season touchdown streak with him into the 2013 season.

He also rushed for a career best 4 touchdowns, as well as converting 11 first downs.

Now that this new deal is in place it clearly solidifies his position with this football team through 2017, ending any speculation of what his future may hold.  Barring any injury or drop off in production, these last few years will hopefully see another couple of championship runs.  The good news is the cap space alleviated by this new contract opens up the ability to make sure they can bring in talent around him and Kraft says they’ll “spend to the cap” to help make that happen.

“I am glad we are able to take negotiations out of this relationship for the next five years. Look, I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next five years. No one can know. But this move, strategically, helps us be in a position to win. We’re going to spend to the cap. Tom knows that it’s not like whatever we don’t pay him we’re putting in the Kraft family pocket. He gets it, and now he’s rooting for us to make the right decisions in building the team. By the way, I have heard that it’s been reported Tom made demands about who he wanted us to sign. Absolutely not. It never happened.

“I credit Tom for doing the right thing and thinking outside the box. That’s what we’re trying to do as an organization, and certainly what Bill Belichick tries to do as a coach. If you don’t have a good coach and a quarterback, you don’t have much of a chance to win. We are fortunate that we have both who are way above par. Tom is everything that we want.”

Brady’s everything and more that fans could have ever hoped to have had come through this organization.  They’ve never experienced a losing or .500 season during Brady’s entire tenure, and have obviously experienced three Super Bowl Championships as well as an undefeated regular season.

Fortunately now he’s under contract for what should be the rest of his career, which should have most fans excited to see how this incredible story will play out as he writes the final chapter here in New England.

Brady will now be a Patriot until he’s at least 40. (FILE:USPresswire)

Tom Brady has always said he plans on being around in New England until he’s 40.

According to SI.com’s Peter King the Patriots have given their signal-caller a 3-year contract extension that will keep Brady in Foxboro through 2017, the same year where Brady will exit his 30′s.

The interesting part of King’s report is the fact Brady will make just $27-million over those 3-years, although NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports that Brady will be guaranteed at least $41 million that “won’t be ripped up” at a later date.  That’s obviously half of his market value, although Brady has said in the past that the most important thing to him was winning football games.  This move allows the Patriots some additional flexibility cap-wise over the next few seasons to ensure they can keep plenty of talent around him.

Albert Breer of NFL.com reports that Brady’s contract will have an immediate effect over the next two years, including freeing up $20-million in cap space for 2013 alone.  That should give them quite a lot of money to spend to be players in the free agent market, as well as potentially lock up a few of their own for the foreseeable future.

One key thing to keep an eye on now will be how this plays into keeping Wes Welker in New England.  Welker and Brady have been close throughout the receiver’s tenure and it will be interesting to see whether or not the move allows them to be creative enough financially to potentially get a deal done.

For now they’ve at least got Brady, Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez locked up over the next four seasons.  Now we’ll have to see what other building blocks they put into place to hopefully make them as memorable as possible as the future Hall of Fame quarterback closes out what has been an incredible career here in New England.

Patriots defensive back Alfonzo Dennard is now waiting to learn his punishment after his felony conviction for assaulting a police officer, but it’s beginning to seem that the news may not be as grim as it initially appeared.

The news appears to be better than first thought regarding Alfonzo Dennard’s upcoming sentencing. (FILE:USPresswire)

Dennard, who will be sentenced on April 11th, is a first-time offender who is gainfully employed and to a certain extent has already suffered some punishment. Greg Bedard points out in his Sunday notes that Dennard had already suffered by losing $1 million from dropping in the draft and the likelihood of receiving a long sentence seems unlikely.

According to Bedard two people with knowledge of Dennard’s case expect him to receive somewhere in the ballpark of three months. Depending on when that starts, it’s possible that the Patriots could in fact have him in house by the start of the season.

The next question that’s come up has been whether or not he’ll face any punishment by the league. The interesting thing that Bedard points out is that since the incident happened before Dennard was an NFL player, he wasn’t covered by the collective bargaining agreement. As a result it seems that scenario may end up being unlikely and if Roger Goodell attempts to suspend Bedard, there will likely be a legal fight with the NFLPA.

For now we’ll have to wait and see what punishment he’ll face, but it appears that if nothing else the Patriots apparently may not have to figure out how to potentially replace him. That’s good news considering they have enough holes to focus on for a season which starts a little less than seven months from now.

The Patriots just suffered a huge blow after the Lincoln Journal reported that a jury of four men and eight women has found defensive back Alfonzo Dennard guilty of assaulting an officer, a felony, and resisting arrest.

According to the report it appears that prison time could be ahead for Dennard, who will be sentenced April 11.  He faces as much as six years.

That’s a tough loss for the New England secondary as Dennard was the bright spot for them down the stretch during their playoff run.  Unfortunately a night where he made some bad decisions first caused him to drop to the seventh round of the draft, and now it may have also potentially cost him time off his NFL career.

Dennard started seven games for the Patriots last season and finished with three interceptions and seemed to be poised to become a full time starter in 2013.

The bad news now is things have certainly changed depending on what happens when Dennard learns his fate.   If nothing else ProFootballTalk.com also points out he’ll likely face a suspension by the league.

Needless to say if the Patriots thought they had secondary issues to address before, after this news, they definitely have yet another problem to deal with in the coming months.

It appears things are about to get fairly interesting with wide receiver Wes Welker.

According to the Boston Herald it doesn’t sound like the Patriots will be franchising the veteran wide receiver, which is likely going to open the door for a bidding war to start for Welker’s services.  If that’s the case, it’s tough to feel confident that he’ll be back in New England for the upcoming season.

Welker played out his $9.5 million franchise tender before the 2012 campaign and finished with 118 regular season catches for 1354 yards and six touchdowns. It was his 5th career 100 reception season, surpassing Marvin Harrison and Jerry Rice for a new NFL record. He also currently holds a regular season streak with 110 straight games with at least one reception.

Clearly he’s a big part of the offense, but whether or not he’ll be part of it next season is now one of the biggest question marks facing this team during the offseason.

What happens with Wes Welker will have the biggest impact for the Patriots personnel moves during this offseason. (FILE:USPresswire)

“I’d love him to be around, he’s a great guy,” Kraft said in a report from Comcast SportsNet. “Like I said all along, it takes two sides to make a transaction and then we have to manage the lawyers and the agents that they don’t mess it up. I think Wes wants to be with us and we want him here so it’s just a matter of whether both sides can be intelligent.”

As we know, Kraft has been able to bring together even the toughest of deals, but this may be his biggest challenge yet.

Welker’s a great player, let’s not kid anyone.  However, they’re in a tough position because they need more than his services to finally reach the next level offensively and they still also have personnel decisions to make on the defensive side of the ball.  The hardest part about this is the fact that someone is likely going to overpay knowing how good of a player that he is, and that increases the likelihood that he’ll be playing somewhere else next season.

The Patriots reinvented their offense after Randy Moss was shipped off during the 2010 season, and there’s no question that there will be a major overhaul in terms of how they operate if Welker doesn’t come back.  One of the more glaring areas was his 3rd down production, as last season the veteran receiver accounted for 30 of the 92 completions Tom Brady had.  The next closest player was Danny Woodhead who had 13, followed by Aaron Hernandez (12), Brandon Lloyd (11) and Rob Gronkowski (11).

Welker also had nearly double the amount of first downs, accounting for 21 of the 73 third down conversions they had through the air.  The next closest players were Gronkowski (11) and Hernandez (10).

He’s also a versatile player who caught passes all over the field.  Looking at his 118 receptions, the interesting thing is when you look at his receiving chart, he hurt opposing teams pretty evenly.

Here’s a breakdown of how he finished during the regular season:

SHORT LEFT:
50 Targets, 40 Receptions, 369 yards, 1 TD

SHORT MIDDLE:
52 Targets, 36 Receptions, 390 yards, 1 TD

SHORT RIGHT:
46 Targets, 33 Receptions, 315 yards, 3 TD’s

DEEP LEFT:
11 Targets, 6 Receptions, 208 yards, 1 TD

DEEP MIDDLE:
7 Targets, 3 Receptions, 75 yards, 0 TD’s

DEEP RIGHT:
9 Targets, 0 receptions

That’s a lot of production that will have to be replaced, and not only do they need to figure out where it’s going to come from, they also need a plan of how they’ll utilize different players in the passing game to keep them as effective on 3rd down. It sounds simple on paper, but this is team built around playing situational football and it’s going to be a little tougher than many may think.

For now what happens with Welker is clearly going to have a big influence over the direction they take during the offseason in terms of personnel moves.  Some would argue that Julian Edelman can fill his shoes, but the two are worlds apart in terms of overall ability – and reliability for that matter.  Welker’s missed three regular season games in six seasons, while Edelman’s missed 10 over the past two after suffering a broken foot against Miami back on December 2nd before ending up on injured reserve.

Despite what many may think, they’re very different players. Edelman certainly gives them a good player at the 3rd the receiver depth spot and he’s terrific returning punts. However, if Welker leaves, they’re losing a great player and they’ll need to at least try and replace him with a couple of good ones – preferably perimeter guys who are in their 20′s and can get separation and make plays.

It’s a dilemma that won’t be easily solved because either the numbers need to work to keep him, or the personnel moves they make once he’s gone will need to ultimately make up for the decision to let him walk.

When it comes down to it, the lack of reliability around Welker, not necessarily the drops that people like to point out, is really a major reason Brady and the Patriots are still chasing another title.  That’s been the problem the last two seasons and despite his age, Welker’s actually been the one who has proven to be one of their most reliable guys. If Gronkowski or even Edelman were active in the AFC Championship this year or had Gronkowski been 100% against the Giants two seasons ago, who knows how either year would have played out?

It’s tough to imagine them going into next season with the group they currently have without Welker, so something has to give.  It’s a difficult decision and truthfully it’s probably one of the most pivotal heading into the final years of Brady’s career.  They can’t let Welker go without making sure they have enough talent to make up for it, but then again they also can’t keep Welker without making sure they have enough money to bring in guys around him who can perform and stay healthy.

As a result it’s a vicious circle that they’ll need to navigate this offseason.  One thing is for certain, regardless of whether or not the agents “screw it up”, the Patriots need to make sure that they don’t do the same with how they handle it if Welker is no longer wearing their uniform.

Waters career in New England seems to be over, but unless he retires the Patriots control his future. (FILE:USATodayImages)

Offensive lineman Brian Waters became an integral part of New England’s offensive line during the 2011 season, but now it will be up to the Patriots to decide what his future may hold.

After signing a two-year free agent contract prior to last season, he missed this year after having never reported.  His number (#54, which was Tedy Bruschi’s old number) was later given to rookie linebacker Dont’a Hightower.

Field Yates of ESPNBoston.com points out that after sitting out Waters still isn’t a free agent and New England has control over him heading into the 2013 league year.

During his absence the team survived initial offensive line concerns heading into the start of this past season where they even reportedly offered Waters a “significant” pay increase to get him to report for the final year of his deal.

That never happened, and Waters never came back.

What happens now remains to be seen.  The likely scenario – unless Waters opts to retire – would be to trade him since releasing him doesn’t do them any good.

For now the only people who know what’s going on is Waters and the Patriots front office, but it seems his tenure here is likely over.  They control his rights with the only question now being whether or not they’re able to salvage anything in terms of acquiring anything in a trade for him.  

With April’s draft edging ever closer and the Patriots in need of stocking up on draft picks, it could be yet another interesting story to follow over this offseason.

On what his emotions are right now:

“Disappointed. I think we obviously didn’t play very well, and if you don’t play very well against a good team, it’s not going to be very competitive. It’s unfortunate. We just couldn’t make any critical plays when we needed to.

On the fact they threw it so much compared to how many rushes they had and if that was a function of getting behind or if that was part of the game plan:

“We got behind in the second half there and became one-dimensional and just couldn’t string enough good plays together to get the ball in the end zone.”

On the fact he said earlier in the season that the toughness of their team is defined by being able to run the ball when other teams know it’s coming and if he felt they were able to do that tonight:

“You know, I’ll have to see the film. Whatever we did, we didn’t execute it very well. The name of the game is execution and if you don’t execute well against a good team, you’re not going to come up on the winning end.”

On the fact they had so many positive plays on early downs:

“Yeah, we stayed on track for the most part, avoided some negative plays. But they make it tough on you. They’re a good team, a very good defense. They kept the pressure on and we just didn’t really stand up to the challenge.”

On the fact he said how precious it was to be in the AFC championship game but how disappointing it is to not be on the winning end of it:

“Well, it’s part of the competition. You have the opportunity to win the game and we came up short. There’s frustration in that we wish we could have done better. But they’re not going to give it to you. We didn’t earn it. They earned it. They played a good game.”

On what happened at the end of the first half:

“Well, we had one timeout left so we were trying to save that for the field goal. We would’ve loved to have gotten the touchdown there but we settled for the field goal to go out, whatever it was, 13-7 at the half. We felt pretty good about where we were at halftime, we just didn’t come out in the second half and execute very well.”

On if there’s a little shock to the system now that there’s no more games left:

“Yeah, well it always comes to a screeching halt. That’s just the way it is. There’s only two teams that advance and those two teams deserve it. We’ve lost before, it takes a while to get over.”

On if by the way it was set up for them, if he feels this was an opportunity lost:

“Yeah, I think being in the situation of the playoffs, it’s always an opportunity lost when you lose because you know, we think we have a pretty good team. We just didn’t play well.”

OPENING STATEMENT:

“Obviously a disappointing end to an overall pretty positive season. But tonight we just didn’t do enough things well enough to win. Give the Ravens credit, they’re a good football team. They just outplayed us and outcoached us tonight. Just made more plays than we did and that’s pretty much the story.”

On the changes the Ravens made in the second half that made things more difficult for them to score points:

“They did a good job. I wouldn’t say there was anything that they didn’t do in the first half, they just did a better job than we did.”

On how the injury to Aqib Talib affected their plans on defense:

“We had to make some adjustments. We lost Kyle [Love],we lost Talib…”

On if he was disappointed in their pass rush:

“Well, I just don’t think anything was really as good as it needed to be tonight. Gave up too many points, didn’t score enough, so… I’d say we probably came up a little short in every area.”

On how disappointed he is hat they measure success in winning championships, yet they haven’t won a Super Bowl in eight years:

“I don’t know. Just focused on this game.”

On his thoughts on the Ridley fumble and whether not he thought Ridley was down:

“It was the official’s call.”

On his thoughts on the call:

“It’s their call. They ruled it a turnover so it’s an official review – it’s not anything I can do.”

On if he had a chance to see the replay and his thoughts on the result:

“It doesn’t make any difference. The officials call the game.”

On if he thought Welker’s third down drop changed the game:

“Well, there’s a lot of plays in the game. There’s a lot of things that we could’ve done better – all of us. So I guess that it just really wasn’t good enough. Wasn’t as good as the Ravens tonight. So that’s why they’re moving on and we’re not. They were just better than we were in really everything.”

On how disappointed that he was that they didn’t take advantage of the field position that they had and the Ravens didn’t have in the first half:

“We are obviously disappointed that we didn’t win. I said that right off the bat. We’re disappointed in the results. What else do you want me to say?”

On how big he felt the field position was in the first half

“I don’t know. It was certainly to our advantage. We had a 13-7 lead. But look, we missed a lot of opportunities tonight. We were 1-for-3 in the red area, couldn’t stop them in the red area. So like I said, we gave up too many points and didn’t score enough.”

On how losing Talib early in the game affected what they wanted to do defensively and if it had any effect on the game plan:

“We had to make some adjustments, yes.”

On if he wanted to match up Talib on a particular receiver in the game and couldn’t do it after he got hurt:

“We had to make some adjustments on what we were doing. When Kyle went out, and when Talib without, we had to make some adjustments there. But I mean, that’s the National Football League.”

On what happened on the last drive in the first half and the fact by the time they got back to the line of scrimmage they only had four seconds left:

“Because if we had snapped the ball and run the play I think if we hadn’t scored, we wouldn’t of had time to get another play off. So we wanted to take the three points.”

On if there was any thought of calling in the immediate timeout after Tom Brady slid:

“Well, not really because I thought we could get up there and, whatever, we wanted to try and get up there and clock it and have time to run a play and have the timeout to kick the field goal. So no, not really. I guess if we had known that it would’ve taken as long as it did to get the football finally clocked, but then we didn’t get a great look on the play. Tom actually called timeout at the same time I did, so we just didn’t have it.”

On if they made any adjustments in the second half that hurt them offensively:

“Did they make any?”

Yes:

“No, I thought they pretty much played what they played in the second half, that’s what they played in the first half.”

On his thoughts on their run game tonight:

“I think everything could’ve been a little better. That’s the bottom line. Nothing was really good enough. A lot of things were okay. It was competitive, but it wasn’t just as good as the Ravens tonight in any area. So we just came up short.”

On the punt from the 35 if there is any thought about going for a field goal and if the wind influence the decision:

“No. There was no thought of kicking a field goal.”

Heading into Sunday’s showdown against the Ravens if history is any indication, the odds are pretty good that this will be a tough game that could come down to a field goal between two great football teams.

Mesko was a difference maker Sunday against Houston. (FILE:USPresswire)

When it comes to low scoring games every yard counts, as does starting field position.  That being said, one thing that really stood out during their win over the Texans was how effective punter Zoltan Mesko was in terms of really helping the Patriots defense out after their offense sputtered and really could have given Houston great field position.

He’s been terrific all season, and he finished the afternoon with 5 punts for 264 yards (52.8 avg – 49.4 net) including two inside the 20.  His longest one of the day went for 64 yards, which was extremely impressive considering New England punted from their own 15 yard line and put Houston all the way back on the other end of the field at their own 21.

Here’s a breakdown of his afternoon:

1) 1st QTR – 12:48: Patriots punt from their own 27 yard line.  Punt goes for 61 yards with a 5 yard return, Texans start at their own 17.

2) 1st QTR – 6:00: Patriots punt from their own 35 yard line.  Punt goes for 57 yards with a 12 yard return, and the Texans start at their own 20.

3) 2nd QTR – 0:31: Mesko punts from their own 30 yard line.   Punt goes for 32 yards with no return, Texans start at their own 38.

4) 3rd QTR – 8:57: Patriots punt from their own 40 yard line.  Punt goes for 50 yards and no return, Texans start at their own 10.

5) 4th QTR – 10:11:  Patriots punt from their own 15 yard line.  Punt goes for 64 yards and no return, Texans start at their own 21.

On three of Mesko’s five punts the Patriots punted from at or inside their own 30 yard line, two of which Mesko managed to pin the Texans at or inside their own 20.  Granted this game ended up being more or less in hand, but against tougher opponents the swing in field position is huge because shorter kicks can lead to – at the very least – field goal attempts.

Against the Ravens that’s what it could come down to.  But fortunately with a kicker like Mesko New England has the upper hand in at least making sure Baltimore will have longer to go on each drive.

That’s an asset that can’t be overlooked, and one that makes you really appreciate just how valuable he is to this football team.