If you have such a problem with that thread, then feel free to explain how I should have expected Welker to be better physically at 30 coming off major knee surgery than he was at 26 with two perfectly healthy knees. There are a lot of safe assumptions in the NFL, and one of them is that that a player won't be faster after a torn ACL than before. Welker being a freak example where that rule did not hold doesn't suddenly make me wrong on all issues relating to Welker.
Anyway, no matter what Welker has done in the very recent past, he's not going to be paid more than what the Pats think he'll be worth in the future. Giving players in their high 20s and low 30s big contracts is exactly how teams get into cap trouble. That's what happened to the Steelers and part of what happened to the Jets. These guys who are in their early 30s decline to where they're not worth their cap hit, but either would cost more to cut than to keep or have enough dead money that they're burdens financially even if released. See Calvin Pace, Bart Scott, James Harrison, Willie Colon, Aaron Smith, Chris Kemoeatu.
Now there's no guarantee that it happens to Welker sometime during his next contract, but it's something Welker is going to have to deal with as a 30 year old free agent WR. He's not going to get what a 26 year old WR coming off a 1500 yard season would get, if for no other reason than that he's a much bigger risk to not live up to that contract than a 26 year old.
And as a random fact, there are 12 WRs under contract for next year who have a contract that averages over $7M a year. Those WRs were 26, 20, 27, 25, 24, 28, 26, 21, 27, 26, 27, and 27 when they signed those contracts. If Welker were 26 or 27, he'd deserve top dollar long term. At 30, he better be happy with either top dollar or long term or there will be big problems.
And now that all that hate has come out, let me say that I'd love to have Welker back as long as it's 2-3 years for not more than $7.5M a year. I'd even be happy to give him the $9.4M franchise amount for one year. I wouldn't give him $36M over 4 years or anything like that though.
[Give or take a year in ages due to when the contract was signed relative to each player's birthday that year. Close enough.]