Edelman and Fletcher

These are two players who were signed to inexpensive one year show-me contracts because of their past injuries. Now, we will have the risk of losing them in the off season.

I do not argue with the decisions made.

We need to retain them, especially edelperson. Turning into one of my favorite players of any pats team.

No one is going to break the bank for Fletcher. He'll be available for reasonable money if the Pats like him better than "random ST-only linebacker" who'd replace him.

Hopefully they do, I certainly like him better than the Don Davises and Niko Koutouvideses of the world.

When Welker entered FA, we speculated all the teams that would love to add the best slot WR in the league to their lineup. (Lions, Cowboys, Broncos, Eagles, etc.) In the end, only two teams we're really interested and he signed for 2 years 12 million. I don't see Edelman having that much demand in FA.

If Edelman wants to fulfill his reincarnation of Troy Brown, he takes a little but less to be a Patriot fan favorite for life. Would 4 years 10 million be good enough?

mgteich said:

These are two players who were signed to inexpensive one year show-me contracts because of their past injuries. Now, we will have the risk of losing them in the off season.

I do not argue with the decisions made.

Click to expand...

When Edelman met with the Giants before resigning I thought BB made a major gaff there because what Edelman is doing now doesn't surprise me I expected it. It wasn't difficult to see his upside going foward with opportunities. Edelman was outpaying Brandon Matthew Lloyd before his injury last year.

mgteich said:

These are two players who were signed to inexpensive one year show-me contracts because of their past injuries. Now, we will have the risk of losing them in the off season.

I do not argue with the decisions made.

Click to expand...

Why do you think no one else signed them to multiple year contracts? Generally multiple year contracts come with guaranteed money. Knowing their injury history, do you think it would have been smart to sign them to multiple year deals with guaranteed money?

PatsFan2 said:

When Edelman met with the Giants before resigning I thought BB made a major gaff there because what Edelman is doing now doesn't surprise me I expected it.

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Are you so sure that the Patriots didn't offer more than one year? With Welker gone, I'm guessing Edelman "expected it" too -- in which case accepting a multiyear deal based on past performance wouldn't have looked too attractive.

Very quietly Edelman has accumulated virtually the exact same production stats as Wes Welker (around 65 catches and 650 yds), and he did it WITHOUT having 2 high end WR's and one of the better pass receiving TE's surrounding him. Plus while I don't know for certain, I'd be willing to bet that Edelman hasn't had nearly as many targets as Wes has had. The only area Wes has excelled has been in TD's, with a career high of 9 so far.

I worry that some team will be willing to pay him in the $3-5MM area as a FA this off season. He's a valuable piece, who is also a top 5 PR as well. Personally that kind of versatility and production should be worth that money. However with DA, Boyce, Thomkins, and Dobson all in Development, I doubt the Pats will pay even 3MM/yr for a guy that might not start if everyone is healthy.

Maybe that 4 year deal for 10MM and a 4MM signing bonus, plus a promise to be Brady's BFF, and a year's worth of Giselle fixing him up with her friends might do the trick.

Fletcher was due to bust out a couple years ago. He got hurt so it's only happening now, but I'm not surprised.

These are both solid players given a chance to succeed here in a great system.

mgteich said:

These are two players who were signed to inexpensive one year show-me contracts because of their past injuries. Now, we will have the risk of losing them in the off season.

I do not argue with the decisions made.

Click to expand...

Neither Fletcher nor Edelman really deserved, based on their output, much larger deals than the ones they received last year. Neither of them had much of a production record to boast about. They both did play well when they played, but the problem was that they simply didn't play enough.

However, I also think that these are both players—like Ninkovich—that fit the mold of succeeding in the Patriots system because they adapt to the system, and the system adapts to them. Fletcher came into the game on Sunday because he fit the schemes better than Hightower, and could do so because he knew the defense well enough to be the "dot dude" on D. On another team, he probably wouldn't have been given the opportunities that he's gotten with the Patriots, and would probably not find the same level of success.

Similarly, how many other teams would have gotten as much mileage out of a guy like Edelman who will play whatever role you ask of him? He probably would have been cut before making the final roster, rather than sticking around and being a rather significant cog in the Patriot machine.

So, yeah, this my long-winded way of saying that the Patriots should want to make both of these guys long-term offers, and that both of them should want to stick around. :rocker:

One of the main reasons Edeleman didnt garner much interest is because he was coming off an injury and played second fiddle to Welker. Now teams are noticing what JE is doing this year since taking over Welkers role with the absence of Amendola when injured. Edeleman is playing himself into a nice contract with some team next year, hopefully it being the Pats. He is matching Welker's production this year sans the TD's but blowing him away in PR. Those $700K days are gone.

mgteich said:

These are two players who were signed to inexpensive one year show-me contracts because of their past injuries. Now, we will have the risk of losing them in the off season.

I do not argue with the decisions made.

Click to expand...

On the same not as Fletcher – Spikes in my opinion is the most interesting free agent we have this offseason because he could potentially garner a lot of attention and command a good size contract or he could be a guy who teams steer away from. Spikes is a great run stopping early down MLB who fits best in a 3-4 at SILB, he is not very good in coverage (putting it nicely) and is not much of a threat in pass rush department with just 1 career sack.

This has not been a very good season for Spikes he has been solid but his play making is down significantly over last season (same with Hightower).

Year – 2012 | 2013
Tackles – 92 | 69
Sacks – 1.0 | 0.0
Forced Fumbles – 5 | 0
Interceptions – 0 | 1
Pass Defends – 7 | 1
Stuffs – 5 | 6

He has still been the same stud as a run stopper but he isn’t creating turnovers like last season and that to me lowers his value significantly. I would like to see the Patriots retain him but I would not pay him more than $2-$2.5 million a year.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a Denver cut Welker and his $8 million cap hit in 2014, and then take a run at Julian Edelman and use the remainder of that money to retain Eric Decker.

I really like both of them. Have from the start. But they are risks health-wise. Love to see both return, but to put money on them might not be the smartest move. I agree with posters who think Fletcher will be cheap, while JE will be much more expensive.

The thing about Edelman is that, due to how late he came to the WR position, he still has significant upside. Somebody might pay him for that.

On the other hand, except in PR he hasn't really had that much career production. So while I'd be delighted for him if he got David Given kind of financial security, I wouldn't bet on it really happening.

As for paying him what he will actually make -- Amendola and the 3 rookies are all clear keepers. So he's competing for contract money not just against other FA WRs, but also against other positions; it would be a reasonable choice to have the 5th WR after those guys be somebody who deserves less money than Edelman does.

It was nice to see Edelman dive to protect himself ala Troy Brown and Wes Welker at 4:45 of overtime. If he can do that more often, he won't take as many hits and hopefully avoid some of those big hits and injuries.

He deserves a raise but really there is no worry here:

NFL Stats: by Player Category

he's 33rd on the NFL receiver list by yards

He's 45th in yards per game

He's 34th in TD's.

He's way down the list in average.

He's 11th in receptions ... but is that a stat that earns more money?

He is 6th in punt return average:
http://www.nfl.com/stats/categoryst...experience=&tabSeq=1&qualified=true&Submit=Go

patsinthesnow said:

When Welker entered FA, we speculated all the teams that would love to add the best slot WR in the league to their lineup. (Lions, Cowboys, Broncos, Eagles, etc.) In the end, only two teams we're really interested and he signed for 2 years 12 million. I don't see Edelman having that much demand in FA.

If Edelman wants to fulfill his reincarnation of Troy Brown, he takes a little but less to be a Patriot fan favorite for life. Would 4 years 10 million be good enough?

Click to expand...

So we saw WW, and this year see JE, as much higher dollar guys because (in part) of the Patriots glasses we wear? And if we could step outside Patriots Nation we could see that the rest of the world didn't/doesn't place anywhere near the same value on them as us? Interesting. It's hard to argue you are wrong given WW appeared to have small interest and ended up signing an unimpressive contract.

If you're right then great!! It just may mean the Patriots can get JE for 4 years, 10 million type contract. IMHO what JE's production gives the Patriots makes that a good value. With the exception for injury concerns, I hope BB is all over that.

It still shocks me (even with Patriots glasses on) that such a highly impressive and well established/well proven pass catching machine got such an unimpressive contract. WW, an NFL record breaking pass catcher goes out on the market for his big splash/big payday and he ends up signing, essentially, a 1 year deal worth 6 million. That still is shocking to me. And if the Broncos cut him loose (as I suspect they will) and he goes back on the market only to get small-ish interest? Questioned answered, he absolutely made a mistake taking the Bronco offer over the Patriots offer.