Still in the post-SB glow, I'm thinking about Wes Welker and Logan Mankins, two guys that should have been on the roster in a more perfect world. I wonder how they took the latest championship, as a personal matter; and whether they have any regrets that they weren't on the team that finally brought the Lombardi home.
NFL is a business, and the players don't really have a lot of degrees of freedom in choosing their employers. Belichick is tougher to stick with than most. He has a history of cutting ties with players he values when their salary gets out of line with what he feels they can provide. Sentimentality doesn't come into play for him. And he doesn't pay for past performance, only for what he expects going forward.
To stay in Foxboro, as your play declines, you have to give money back. Bruschi took a pay cut in his last years. Troy Brown did too. Matt Light did too; and I suspect Light probably retired a year or two earlier than he really had to, once the Pats decided they didn't need him anymore. That's what it costs for core Pats players to actually finish their careers here.
Turns out, the Pats wanted to keep Welker on terms that sounded like a legitimate offer. He chose Denver instead. He could easily have played the role of Danny Amendola on the 2014 roster, if he'd been willing to put up with the likely decline in pay. Instead, he's been buried on the Denver depth chart, taking too many hits to the head, courtesy of Peyton, and seriously contemplating retirement as a result.
Mankins negotiated his contract tough and refused to cut his salary, making him a target for the Tampa trade. If he had given back some of his salary, no question he would have gotten a ring in 2014 instead of exile to the horrific Bucs. He left a serious gap on the line that we're still looking to fix.
Contrast the outcome of the Welker and Mankins contract negotiations with the Vince Wilfork deal. Wilfork is in the last years of his career, too, and he's a pale reflection of the player he was even just two years ago. But, to his credit, he pounded out a reduced contract with upside incentives (that he met and earned). And even as his play declined, the Pats valued his locker room presence enough to keep him around on those terms.
Wilfork will be asked, again, to take a pay cut this offseason. And it's hard to argue that his game hasn't declined. If his pride isn't too bruised by the idea of sinking deeper on the depth chart, and playing for less money, he could have a shot at another ring or two as the elder statesman on the team.
I am disappointed that Welker never got a ring with the Pats. He deserves one. Shockingly, Mankins never got a SB ring either, drafted in 2005. He deserves one too. His soul is still part of the team. If he'd taken a cut (I wonder how much they asked him to take), by now he would have it too.
So, I wonder if either Welker or Mankins regret it. If they had it to do over again, would they be willing to leave a million dollars on the table to stay with the franchise? Two million? Or are they satisfied with how it worked out? After all, a Championship is forever. A little taste of immortality.
