Amendola does not suck. He is a solid NFL receiver, but in context to his contract, he sucks. He has been part of an NFL team for 5 regular seasons, in 4 of the 5 he was a top 2 target on his team. Amendola’s average season is 50 catches, 471 yards, and 1.8 touchdowns. His averages 9.2 yards per catch, which is the lowest of any WR with 100+ career catches in the last 25 years.
He was signed to replace Wes Welker; in 2013, he had 45% of the catches, and 46% of the yardage that Welker produced in 2012. This means Amendola was less than half the player he was signed to replace, even worse if you take Welker’s career earnings with the Patriots and divide them by the 6 seasons he played here he was paid an average of $4.6M per season, Amendola is being paid an average of $5.7M.
Posters and fans want to point to these games in which Amendola excels and say if he is ever healthy he is going to do this every week, the reality is that is foolish. Plenty of players have a couple great games in a season, if Dennard played as he did in the Colts game every week he would be the best CB ever. What makes Welker great and other players great is the show up every single week and produce, Amendola does not do that, he had 357 yards in 3 games (Bills, Steelers, Dolphins) and 276 yards in his other 9 games. The playoffs were a perfect example of the inconsistent nature of Amendola, against the Colts 77 receiving yards, against the Broncos 0 receiving yards. Many will blame this on a groin injury, which is why I will point out that in 2012 he had 26 catches on 28 targets for 262 yards in 2 games (Redskins, 49ers), and in the other 9 games he played he had 37 catches on 73 targets for 404 yards. He caught 92% of the balls thrown his way in 2 games and 50.6% of the balls thrown his way in the other 9 games.
Amendola entered the league in 2008, this season will be his 7th season as part of an NFL organization, players do not generally make the 7th year leap. Amendola has never had more than 689 yards in a season and it is not because of anything other than himself, blaming a week groin injury for his AFCCG performance is absurd. When he went down he had a return timetable of 2-6 weeks, the AFCCG was 19 weeks later.
In short as I said he does not suck, but he is not that good, he is a solid slot receiver who if he was being paid $2.5M a year I would be thrilled to have, but at his current rate he is not in my wheelhouse. Amendola is on borrowed time, the likelihood that he is here in 2015 is about 5%, and if he is injured again this season, his NFL career will become just like Austin Collie’s where he does not receiver more than a 1-year contract.
