The Pats are only on the hook long-term with Welker, out of all the receivers. He's reasonably priced enough, reliable enough, and young enough that they seem to see long-term status as the right solution. Since the price is low, you could even cut him and have pretty manageable dead money impact, in the unlikely event that nobody would trade for him.
Next year, though, becomes a decision point, at WR: do we push the button on the whole WR corps, at least the ones that matter? Assuming that's Moss, Stallworth, Welker, plus the 4-6 guys all costing 4-6 money, it could get pricey. Will Moss take a discount, when we're paying Stallworth $11M in 2008? We have to assume that all happy talk aside, he'll at least want the $6-7 M apy Stallworth is going to get, assuming he performs at a similar or higher level. Well (correct me if I'm wrong, people,) 2008 doesn't look bad for free agents. But then 2009 we have to deal with Rosey Colvin and Ty Warren, and 2010 is a beast, with Mankins, Kaczur, O'Callaghan, just about all our tight ends, Wilfork, Seymour, Jarvis Green, and a couple others who might develop (Hobbs, for example), needing to be re-done. That's most of our O- and D-lines needing resigning (two of the best such units in football,) and the entire corps of tight ends. And that's not the full list, either.
All this to say: 2008's a "maybe" to keep all the receivers we like, but it looks almost necessary for some 2008 money to get pushed into 2009, and some 2009 money pushed into 2010 (especially.)
This is amateur cap-gazing, admittedly, but you have to think that keeping all 3 will be tough, unless we front-load a Moss deal in 2008 -- still tough to do, and it would mess with incentive (a bad idea in Moss' case) -- but the alternative is to backload him into a period of comparative cap scarcity in 2009 and especially 2010.
Um, I say we'll end up with either Moss or Stallworth in 08, is what I'm trying to say, not both. It's not undoable, and obviously, deals can be redone at any time in any way, for just such cap exigencies.
But if Stallworth doesn't look to be worth his remaining contract years in the presence of Moss, or vice versa, I would not be surprised to see one or another looking for work in 2008.
PFnV