$2.25 million is only $850k more than $1.4 million. I don't think anyone would say that $850k is a substantial amount of money. I seriously doubt that SMY and Tom Curran would report that the Pats offered a lot more than the $1.4 million if it was only $850k.
My guess is that they were offering him at least $3-4 million to play this season, probably closer to $4 million. If the Pats were willing to pay Shaun Ellis $4 million to play when he was clearly on the decline and wasn't going to be more than a role player, I would think that would be the mark where they would put Waters.
If the Pats were giving him concessions to miss training camp and preseason along with a pay bump, you think they are out of line to ask him to restructure his contract to protect themselves if he leaves in the season. And let's not forget that this was a restructure that Greg Bedard reported that Waters agreed to.
From all the reports except for Jeff Howes', the Pats bent over backwards to accommodate Waters and his family situation. Yet, people are still twisting this into the Pats are screwing him.
If it was such a crappy deal that they were offering, Waters could have refused to agree to it and just show up and force the Pats to pay him the money he is owed on his original deal, cut him, or trade him. If Waters wants to play closer to home and the Pats don't want to pay him his $1.4 million as a base, this would have been his best powerplay to get the Pats to cut him and him to sign with the Texans or Cowboys probably for more money.