I think that is the million dollar question, or in Wallace's case, possibly closer to a 9 million dollar a year question.
Add in the unliklihood of Belichick trading a very precious 1st round draft choice in the new era of rookie caps, plus a monsterous contract on top of that, and I think it makes the Wallace to NE talk extremely unlikely.
Then again, Belichick may very well have a much better idea of whether or not Wallace could possibly fit here, taking into acct his attitude and work ethic, and may come to a different end result.
There are also other teams with 2 first rounders, and/or the need for a WR with Wallace's skill set, and they may be willing to take that gamble on a larger financial scale.
Well, of course that's THE question, but assuming Belichck wants him, I'd have no problem giving up #31 and a big contract for a proven deep threat 25 year old WR.
That's right on the cusp of being a 2nd round pick, and taking away a consistent deep threat who has caught 35 passes that were THROWN (not yards after catch) for more than 20 yards over the first three years of his career, I think teams would have no choice but to take him seriously right from the start.
Would he be a one trick pony that simply runs a straight sideline route, beats defenders with speed and keeps DBs honest, rather than running all the routes that Brady likes? Maybe. But I can live with that because frankly, we need a deep threat and I can't see Wallace being such a bust that he's unable to be a credible deep threat.
With Gronkowski, Hernandez, and from the sound of it Welker prepared to play for a full season, we have plenty of short to middle route running guys. What Brady really needs is a deep threat to keep defenses honest, and that will make things easier for Welker, Gronkowski, Hernandez, our RBs, our OL, and most importantly, keep some pressure off of Brady.
Taking him away from a division rival is another win win
WRs typically take far too long to develop as rookies, so I view that as even a bigger bust risk than a young proven veteran... More importantly, I would think that OTHER teams would immediately view Wallace as a signficant threat.
So from where I sit, a deep threat WR is going to have to come from free agency (they'll probably draft one too but I wouldn't count on immediate production.)
If Welker were going to hold out I might lean more towards someone like Lloyd, but Welker sounds like he's willing to play under the tag if it comes to that.