Umm..... When were you privvy to Welker's medical records? For all we know, Welker could go under the knife tomorrow. Mayo supposably had a really bad MCL tear and was back on the field in three weeks. We have no idea how bad the MCL is going to take. Even so, by most medical expert research, a WR can return to play from an ACL reconstruction and be back close to 100% in as little as seven months. That means Welker could actually fulfill the Patriots estimation that he will be ready for the start of the season.
Yes, with the Pats going 10-6 this year, if they do not have a near perfect offseason, this team will be lucky to have three wins. The way this team is constituted right now the Pats will be lucky to go 0-16 and have a few games that are close. Come on! Again, this team won TEN GAMES this year. People act like this team won six or less games.
As for the free agents the Pats got this year, McKenzie's injury and Jason Taylor playing games with the Pats when Belichick thought he was going to be signed here made Belichick have to make the trade for Burgess. It wasn't like Belichick went into the offseason planning on trading for Burgess three weeks before the start of the season. This year, there are a lot more options for the position.
According to Miguel, if there is a cap, the Pats will be $45 million under the cap (last year even after trading Cassel and a few minor house keeping issues, the Pats were like $10-12 million). If there is no cap, Michael Lombardi has stated the Pats have one of the lowest actual payrolls right now and they are one of the most profitable teams. I fully expect this to be 2003 or 2007 where the Pats are agressive in free agency, not last year where the Pats had very little cap room to make big deals.