Curran: For Welker it was about ego, not money

[RayClay]

It wasn't the money; it was the principle | Comcast SportsNet - CSNNE.com


pretty sad if this is how it happened. Wish they had simply not made an offer in FA and said they are moving on . Wouldve been cleaner.

The gall of the Patriots to have the long time veteran they hired to manage player contracts talk to a player about a contract!

 

[UK_Pat37]

It's all pure speculation.

Here's my $0.02:

We offered Welker 2 years $16M fully guaranteed reportedly last year which he turned down. The general consensus was he felt he was worth more and wanted longer security.

If they felt that was his market value before he'd played a full season in 2012, then you can bet your bottom dollar this year he was worth less than that to them based on their assessment.

He tested the market, turns out he was flat out wrong about his value and the birdges were already burned a long time ago.

It's a sad state of affairs. I don't blame the management. I don't blame Welker for wanting more.

Simple fact is, Welker isn't actually worth as much as half the people on here stated he was worth and the deal he signed with Denver proves it. He wasn't worth what he thought and now he's had to take a discount at a different team because of that attitude.

 

[RayClay]

Is Curran going full gossip columnist these days, or what? Oh, the drama!

 

[Uncle Rico]

Is Curran going full gossip columnist these days, or what? Oh, the drama!

Seems to be the route pretty much everyone else is taking. Shocking, I know.

Reactions around the web to Welker - New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

0-16 here we come, apparently.

 

[Mack Herron]

Welker: Playing for a HOF QB on a contending team for more money.

Patriots: Replacing 1,354 receiving yards last season with a guy who has never had 700 yards in any season. Welker has nearly 3000 receiving yards in the last 2 years, while Amendola has 1,726 yards in his career. Evidence favors Welker outperforming Amendola in the next 2 years. Maybe the folowing 3 years turn things around.

I see the Patriots as weaker, a competitor as stronger, and Welker as wealthier.

 

[VJCPatriot]

I think that there must be some truth to this. Because money-wise, for the talent and production that Welker offers, 6m per year for 2 years is downright CHEAP.

I have no idea why the Pats kept lowballing him. Going down from 2/16 to 2/10 is a slap in the face. I don't know how else to put it. Welker had enough. Apparently I also heard that when he got the 2/12 offer he called the Pats and they declined to match. And then he made his final decision.

I think somebody got in BB's ear and convinced him that Welker was not worth the money/was too central to the offense etc.

Much as I loved having Welker, bottom line is that maybe management took a look at playoff production/effectiveness and decided that Wes was not the right player to take us to the final level - IE bring a championship trophy home. But aside from that I think there must have been some kind of ego clash, maybe as some suggest between Welker and Mcdaniels, that led to WW's exit from New England.

I have nothing more than the suspicion that it all does in fact boil down to egos.

Perhaps Wes' fun loving prankster-prone attitude was feeling oppressed under Belichicks stern, business-centric thumb.

And perhaps Wes has enough of the #1 WR diva ego that he was in fact pretty angry that the upstart McDaniels and the Patriots attempted to decentralize his role on the offense.

He reacted. The coaches reacted and who the hell knows what snowball got start rolling.

Its all wild conjecture of course, but it fits better than the alien concept that the Patriots didnt feel he was worth a 2 year 12 million dollar contract.

 

[BradyManny]

I have a hard time believing that the Patriots would make a personnel decision with any motive other than the best interest of the football team in mind.

At the same time, I have a hard time believing that the Patriots honestly believe Danny Amendola will be a better receiving option next year or any year than Wes Welker.

So either way, I'm at a loss at the moment.

 

[IllegalContact]

Welker: Playing for a HOF QB on a contending team for more money.

Patriots: Replacing 1,354 receiving yards last season with a guy who has never had 700 yards in any season. Welker has nearly 3000 receiving yards in the last 2 years, while Amendola has 1,726 yards in his career. Evidence favors Welker outperforming Amendola in the next 2 years. Maybe the folowing 3 years turn things around.

I see the Patriots as weaker, a competitor as stronger, and Welker as wealthier.

the amendola deal provides space for the pats to make one more FA WR purchase. as 'cheap' as welker might have been, the short term of the contract would not have provided the same kind of space.

honestly, I think the pats want to move a way from the slot guy being their primary option. with welker, it would have been more of the same, which is not bad unless you consider age and nobody stays healthy forever. I think they want to spread welkers production around more

 

[voluntarysaftey]

I think that there must be some truth to this.

Everything you summarized points to Curran being wrong.
1. Patriots made an offer.
2. Welker thought it was very low. (If fans had known about the offer, there also would've been 'this is too low', 'its an insult' outrage on these boards; myself included).
3. Welker went out to get better offers.
4. Welker realized the original offer was at his market level, and found another one slightly more (the fact that his best offer was at 6m is a shock to me).
5. Welker wanted to remain a Patriot -- so asked the Pats to match
6. Pats decided the offer was their max offer
7. Welker signed elsewhere.

There doesn't seem to be any ego or spite in this sequence on Welker's part -- if you're spiteful you pull a Ray Allen and sign for less; not ask for your team to match. And surprisingly, on the Pat's part, they judged the market completely accurately -- offering him 1m/year less than the best that the other 30 teams could do.
The only thing that was maybe mis-judged by fan is that Welker would decide to take a home-town, 20% discount.

 

[grux]

From what I've read, sounds like Welker could have made $16 million here if he reached his incentives. Gotta think they are achievable, since he's been a 100+ catch guy his whole time here.

Bedard was on eei this morning and said they wouldn't be attainable.

 

[IllegalContact]

Bedard was on eei this morning and said they wouldn't be attainable.

then he would not have been worth the money

 

[ThatllMoveTheChains!!!]

I have a hard time believing that the Patriots would make a personnel decision with any motive other than the best interest of the football team in mind.

At the same time, I have a hard time believing that the Patriots honestly believe Danny Amendola will be a better receiving option next year or any year than Wes Welker.

So either way, I'm at a loss at the moment.

I'd guess it's a long vs short term decision mixed with a desire to end the negotiations with WW. I think at some point before his contract is up DA will be a better receiving option than WW, so it's not unbelievable that the Pats have that same view. In the meantime the Pats likely have enough talent to cover the disparity between WW's and DA's production.

 

[upstater1]

Someone please explain to me why BB is the bad guy or in any way wrong?

He set a market for Wes. Wes hit the open market and the best he could do was 2 mil more. Seems like BB was spot on and Wes was just pissed he wasn't worth more or that we didnt feel the need to offer more than anyone else was willing.

$6m is considerably more than $5m. The deals are not really close. I can't see many players willing to take 16% less in salary unless they're set.

Welker was worth more to the Patriots because he knows the offense and works well with Brady. The Patriots are not going to have the same success at his position without him, and Wes will not have the same success without Brady. But he will be making more money than he would have on the Patriots.

I've stepped away from all of this over the last day, and when I weigh everything, it seems to me that the Patriots made a colossal screw-up. I don't think they believe they did since they had plenty of time to weigh everything, but in the end, they are not going to be as good a team as they could have been without this. $1 million more for Welker is what they needed to spend--we spend $1 million more a year on the Fanene's of the world, the Patriots send guaranteed money to players who are cut in camp. $m is not going to make or break their budget--and for that reason alone, this is a big screw-up.

I expect it will hurt them on the field next year. Now, Welker didn't play much in the opener, and the Patriots offense moved things fine, but there were points during the season when the offense stalled--until they started using Welker. The first Buffalo game is one example. They had a putrid first half. Then they started to feature Welker, and because of that they put up 50 points.

 

[upstater1]

Yep I mentioned it earlier and its a huge factor.

It's training camp.

Wes doesn't have anything to prove in training camp. He is reliable. He proves it during the season. The Patriots have had a great many training camp warriors at WR over the years--but these players never did a thing during games. If the staff is truly judging players based on camp performances and not game reliability, you have to question their senses.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Look ... we're talking about millionaires here ... seriously ... we're pitying millionaires ... NOT!!!

I'd tend to agree. I hate to sound insensitive but isn't it your job to bust your ass for your team and give it all on the field? That's why each season you get paid more than the average person earns over a lifetime. Oh poor Wes only made $9.5M last year, how dare BB set a value on him that they are willing to pay and force him to settle for $12M elsewhere.

 

[Snake Eyes]

It wasn't the money; it was the principle | Comcast SportsNet - CSNNE.com


pretty sad if this is how it happened. Wish they had simply not made an offer in FA and said they are moving on . Wouldve been cleaner.

Did they have things finalized with Amendola at that point? If not they would be giving up leverage to Amendola by not having Wes as an option.

It might not feel very nice but negotiating that way is a much smarter business move.

 

[emoney_33]

According to Reiss this morning.. it went like this.

The only thing I've heard so far that actually makes sense... Business. Both parties were doing business, looking out for what was in their best interest, and at the end of the day it didn't work out between them. None of this nonsense of hurt feelings, none of this nonsense of Welker's decline, no nonsense, always business. It's almost as if Patriots nation has been asleep for 10 years.

 

[voluntarysaftey]

it seems to me that the Patriots made a colossal screw-up. I don't think they believe they did since they had plenty of time to weigh everything,

10vs 12m doesn't seem that big of a deal from the Pat's perspective -- unless the Pats thought 10m was the absolute max 'we like so we're giving you this' deal.

I think Welker is absolutely correct in taking the extra money from a team that has a similar (slightly less in my opinion) chance of winning as the Pats.

The only way we'll find out if the Pats were right in their decision to let him walk is based on Welker's production. He's going to hit a cliff at some point -- look at Branch's numbers with the Pats at a similar age to where Welker is now - year 1 was really good, year 2 was so-so, year 3 was bad.

So if the cliff happens in the next two years, and if the Pats have some reason to believe it will (maybe they noticed a slowdown), then it makes sense.

If the Pats believed Welker would be good for one or two more years, then I think they err'd -- even if they thought he'd be good for one more year they could've offered 1 year, 7m or so.

 

[IllegalContact]

welker is the 3rd option in denver now......

there was no way the pats were going to keep him here and not pay him like he was not going to be the #1 option, and they no longer want him to be the #1 option.....something had to give and it has.....he's in denver now.

decker is in a contract year.......thomas is going to start harping about a contract.......both caught over 1000 yards last year and both has doubel digit TD's......lets see how the chemistry works out when both guys number of targets start dropping.......welker was supposedly a class act and look at how he handled it.......expect to see both guys pounding on the GM door

 

[voluntarysaftey]

the amendola deal provides space for the pats to make one more FA WR purchase. as 'cheap' as welker might have been, the short term of the contract would not have provided the same kind of space.

Good point -- the likely low first year number might make it easier to sign Talib and someone else (Nnamdi, Reed, outside receiver, DT help would all be good)