PatsFans.com Article

Sign, Tag, Cut: Choose Between Welker, Talib and Vollmer
By: Derek Havens

In order to spark a debate in the PatsFans community, answer the following question. Between the three -- Welker, Talib and Vollmer -- which one would you sign to a (realistic) long-term deal, apply the franchise tag and let go in free agency?...

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Sicilian

Sign Welker, because of the three he's the one you know for a fact can stay healthy and produce at a level at least close to what the money would deserve.

Franchise Talib because the sample size was too small to risk a long term deal on him, but CB is still an area of need. Even with him depth would be needed.

Cut Vollmer. I like him, and hope he can stay, but of the three I feel he can be the most easily replaced, especially with Scar.

Froob

spot on, 100% agree.

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BradyMoss812

Sign Welker.

Tag Talib.

Cut Vollmer.

MoLewisrocks

You think this debate was in need of a spark? LOL And the title is misleading as they can't "cut" any of them as they are all UFA.

I agree Welker would stay here on a reasonable deal. They have yet to offer him a remotely reasonable one, so it's not looking good.

Talib hasn't proven much to date and handing him $10M guaranteed doesn't seem to be the way to gauge whether he in fact ever will live up to his potential. His guaranteed money on a long term deal wouldn't be much more than that. That said, let the market speak. If it is willing to roll the dice on an overpay, let it... They need a solid veteran and those can usually be found on a year to year basis, never moreso than in a year when many teams are in cap heck. Dennard situation might force their hand, but they should know his status by the end of the day today.

Vollmer is a top level RT when healthy. Trouble is he seldom is. And it's not just the games he's missed, it's the games where he played at less than 100% and hurt them. And teams simply cannot just keep the best OL together for continuity because the big uglies are now making too much coin on veteran deals. It's one of the easier positions to transition/project from college to the pros and one of the safest to draft in the earlier rounds. Add in a coach like Dante and it just doesn't make economic sense to retain them all. Mankins is in at $8.5M. A decision will have to be made on Solder at the end of this season (rookie tag or get a long term deal done that will average close to $10M or face looming FA with him in 2015).

I still can't fathom how the owners allowed the tag for OL to remain lumped together. Tagging Vollmer at top 5 RT money to maintain for one more season would probably be a given. Tagging him at almost $10M simply isn't economically sound. $10M is top 5 LT money. Top 5 RT money is somewhere between $6.5-7.5 (depending on lengh of deal, the top two deals were of the 2 year variety).

I don't think they tag anyone.

fleabassist1

1. Sign Talib, Vollmer
2. Let Welker test free agency
3. ????
4. Profit

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Ive_Killed_People

Cut all 3.....I cant make the case to sign or franchise any of them(unless someone gives a home town discount) because of age,attitude, and health

PatsDeb

Sign Welker for 2 years. We need him. Brady needs him. Don't tag him as we'll end up in the same place next year. Not sure if we should tag either Talib or Volmer. Both have had problems with injuries. I'd say Talib more than Volmer because Dante is able to make lemonade with whatever is handed to him for offensive linemen. The back field, not so much, and it would be interesting to see how Talib does here for a whole year (although do we want to pay a high price for such an experiment?).

KontradictioN

Sign Welker, tag Talib, and let Vollmer walk (as Mo mentioned, you can't "cut" any of them). I have the feeling that this will be the prevailing emotion throughout the board aside from trolls... ahem... GUYS like helmet2helmet, etc.

Sign Welker: In spite of what the way too pro-Edelman crowd was trying to shovel to us last offseason, Welker showed no signs of slowing down. He's the essential cog in this passing offense (outside of Brady, of course). He takes away additional coverage from guys like Hernandez, Gronk, and Lloyd and, in the AFCCG, was the only guy getting consistent separation from press man. I'd put an initial offer on the table for 3/$24M and hope he bites. After that, draft a receiver in the mold of a Demaryius Thomas to give us an added red zone threat as well as a guy that works outside the hashes.

Tag Talib: ...after experimenting with the FA market to see what's out there. If Grimes, DRC, or any of the other options aren't appetizing, then slap the tag on Talib. This will keep him and Dennard together as the two outside CB's and it will keep McCourty at safety where he belongs. Then, you can either re-sign Arrington or try to improve the "star" position later in the draft.

Let Vollmer walk: I like Vollmer, and it would be a shame for it to come down to this, but OL looks to be pretty promising in next year's draft. There's also some stop gap free agents available that can fill in if needed/if Vollmer asks for too much. Personally, the position on the OL that I would like to see addressed in the draft this year is RG. This will make it so that Connolly can slide back to C.

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CREDIT - Sicilian

borg

Cut
Cut
and Cut

Talib too injury prone for the money he's likely to receive.
Seabass back issues and big money don't mix
WW.......time to punt the small ball offense. Just reexamined the NE/Baltimore game. Brady was in shot gun on 48 snaps including 20 in a row the final 11:40 of the game (excluding 2 Brady spikes). During the 20 consecutive shot gun snaps, Brady was 11/20 averaging 6 yds/pass attempt while throwing 2 picks.....and scoring zero points. NE has plenty of short route targets without WW, time to move on and use his cap savings to bolster other deficiencies.

That is my wish, but I do expect Seabass to stay and I suspect Talib won't be as pricey as has been predicted

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