patfanken

I wish people would keep me informed. I thought the next Welker thread wasn't due until Tuesday, to be followed by the regular Friday thread.

PatsWickedPissah

Which way did you vote?

Assuming you're not on thread ignore

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Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as "bad luck." RAH

supafly

I actually think that there is some merit to this thought for sure. I honestly feel as though Welker would indeed stay here to continue playing with Brady for a bit of a hometown discount..yes.

The problem is the front office may not be able/willing to give him something "fair," which most of us agree would be in the ballpark of about 8 to 8.5 million per year with at least something in the mid-high teens in guaranteed money on a multi-year deal. I really think that Welker would take that to stay, as long as it's competitive with other somewhat respectable WR deals. I don't get the feeling that he needs to be one of the top few WRs paid in the game, but at the same time he also doesn't want to hear of how "he got taken" either.

I can guarantee that he obviously doesn't want to stay if they are going to insult him, much like last year. That's when they really dropped the ball. I always wonder what would have happened if they had just made it one more year on a 3/24 deal instead of a 2/16 deal, but we'll never know. If we did that would give us a much better clue as to what will happen.

The million dollar question and also my main concern is if they weren't willing to come up from 2/16 last year, why would they be willing to now suddenly do it this year, when Welker is yet another year older with more wear/tear and additional hits and miles? It's this reason why I am very leery as to getting a deal done.

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Patiently waiting to defend the next "bubble" player in this summer's training camp.....

Tyler.Durden

Don't think we can tag welker, he can drag his feet, sit out... Would be good to get something for welker though if he is off

MoLewisrocks

Ty Law left here in a wheel chair after missing half a season recovering from high ankle sprain surgery because he refused to restructure the last 2 years of his pre BB deal into a 4 year deal to avoid another $12M+ cap hit against an $82M cap. Although Bill did keep chasing him to re-up on that restructured deal to no avail for 2-3 seasons.

Branch left because they miscalculated his resolve and his market and by the time they realized it it was too late to backtrack.

Seymour had little to do with cap space. He simply hadn't lived up to his potential on or off the field since 2005 and he was becoming a negative leader in the locker room. Similar situation to his mentor, Milloy, only Richard wasn't even asked to restructure because they knew it was pointless.

Welker will be gone for the same reason Asante was. They simply do not want to pay market for the position (which as in Asante's case doesn't bode well for the secondary replacement either). And while tagged both failed to make a play, or in Asante's case a couple of plays, that seemingly would have resulted in a Championship. Both could have been signed to reasonably priced long term deals a year or two before being tagged. And who knows, maybe then they'd have been better able to focus. Welker in particular had earned one. But once that ship sailed it was essentially over.

The only time they paid market for an elite WR here it came back to bite them in the ass because they never got value for that contract and by the end of it the player was becoming problematic on and off the field. They've since made it back to a Superbowl once and back to an AFCC game twice absent both the elite deep threat and a pro bowl corner with identical results so I think they don't believe investing in those players yields the kind of results they are looking for.

I think they are continuing to grapple with what it is that does. They thought having two TE's who project as elite weapons particularly in the red zone and adding talent at RB would do the trick. Only the two TE's can't stay healthy let alone in tandem and their backups can't remotely replicate their production and the young RB's have been a work in progress with that progress taking longer than they anticipated. They seemingly upgraded outside the numbers but that didn't translate either. And to add insult to injury while honing the blade on his swiss army knife the tip broke off...

This team needs to add or upgrade talent, addition by subtraction is only going to make the future even more susceptible to random.

On defense they added to the pass rush and reconfigured the secondary but again injury mitigated most of what they believed they had accomplished.

Welcome to the NFL where in the end much of what is accomplished is seemingly random, the thing Belichick truly abhors.

MoLewisrocks

Welker has nothing to do with paying Vollmer. Mankins and Solder and eventually paying whomever ascends to center over the next 4-5 seasons will be the issues there. And you probably weren't around then but we lost a Superbowl in which we had all pro deep threat and a pro bowl corner.

patriot1136

I hope Welker stays but I'm realistic that he probably won't. But, is there any chance he would give a "hometown discount" and take a slightly lower salary to stay in New England? If I was a football player, I wouldn't mind making a few less $$ if it meant a great chance at going back to the Super Bowl

naF staP

I say yes! The Patriots can't let him walk. When the leader of the team, TFB says he is the heart of the team and is important to the team then you have to find a way to sign him. But Welker has to be smart here, he can't ask for what he wants, he needs to be in the ballpark of accepting $8 million per year for 2 years.

Can you imagine what the Pats would have looked like last season when they almost let him walk. Had Welker been gone, Edelman out hurt, Gronk and Hernandez trading time on the bench hurt the Pats would have been in serious trouble without Welker. Welker is the most dependable and productive player on offense, outside of Brady. You find a way to keep Welker and don't ask your franchise QB who is on the tail end of his career to break in someone new at that spot. You don't take away his go to guy.

I'm banking on the Patriots to be smart here, they are a few players away from winning it all, you don't let Welker walk, that like taking three steps backwards and they can't afford to take three steps backwards now. Pay the man, and fix some other positions instead.

If Welker leaves he will be a member of a team who's so close to winning it all, he will succeed with that team, in turn hurt the Patriots. I see him going to the Broncos or Packers. He would be huge with either team and help push them over the top. Be smart Patriots, keep Welker.

Kenneth Sims

No, Wes Welker will be catching his 100 balls elsewhere next season.

Hopefully, the Patriots have a good plan to replace him. The plan they had to phase him out of the offense last season didn't exactly work. I'm not holding my breath we'll see Mike Wallace or Greg Jennings here and will not be surprised when Brandon Lloyd is shown the door either.

Maybe, that's for the best, We've become a little obsessed with big-name players around here. But, the Patriots don't need a Larry Fitzgerald or Calvin Johnson. Give me an off-season where the Patriots can sign, draft, or develop another Patten, Givens and Branch and this offense will be even better than it has been. Perhaps, that's what Brian Daboll was rehired to do.

JackBauer

If the question is what I think versus what I want to happen, then no, I don't think Welker plays for the Patriots in 2013.