If Edelman receives an offer comparable to Amendola, I doubt the New England Patriots will match.
I would hope not, although it obviously depends on how the contract is structured. For all the whining about Amendola, he had a 2 million dollar salary and another 1 million guarateed this year for a 3.5 cap hit.
I highly doubt that he'll see the higher years of that pact, although it was structured to where he has the potential if he takes off. Since that hasn't happened, I am viewing Amendola's pact as a 2 yr deal with the option to restructure or move on in 2015.
In the meantime, I don't have as much problem as others with his salary. He isn't living up to it, but we'll have to get by for the upcoming season.
I don't see anyone offering Edelman more than 4--4.5 AAV, but we'll have to see. He still has injury concerns, and one would have to assume that any GM in their right mind will certainly take into account the lack of other options at our position this season, which led him to 151 targets. On top of that, I think they are going to realize that
none of Cruz, Welker, or Amendola are living up to their costs, which may cause them to be a bit more cautious.
If I'm Belichick, I don't think twice about letting Edelman pursue his opportunity should someone offer 5 million dollars, let alone 6.
I view Edelman, Amendola, Collie somewhat redundant at the wide receiver position.
I don't see it being that relevant due to the fact that we are basically stuck with Amendola for 2014, therefore it comes down to whether or not you want to try and keep Edelman too. I wouldn't let anything else aside from a better (or poorer value) offer stop me from retaining Edelman. He offers great ST value, and has improved in his WR game.
Collie probably won't be here, and if he is (which is highly unlikely in my opinion), it won't be for any kind of role which will force him to see much of the field. If they want to keep him for depth purposes or a backup short field receiver at the vet minimum, fine...who really cares either way? I don't mind the game to sit on the bench and be ready should the time come, as long as he's not seeing much of the field like today, which we were
forced to do.
Either way, I don't think this factor will have much bearing on our future 2014 WR group. A better physical option, along with the hopeful return to health from Gronkowski, would go a long way towards helping things out. If one of Dobson/Boyce (screw Thompkins in my opinion, unless he'd be kept for a WR5 role or something) steps up, all the better.
The New England Patriots invested in wide receiver unrestricted free agent market last season in Amendola.
Good for them. They also watched as Wes Welker, Brandon Llyod, Danny Woodhead, and Aaron Hernandez walked away for one reason or another. If they didn't sign a free agent receiver to replace any of these 4 losses, I think we'd all have been shocked. Either way, it still needs to be addressed again no matter who they signed last offseason.
Last year's offseason was just like any other in the sense that we lost some free agents, cut some players, asked for restuctures from others, and signed some to replace the ones we lost.
The New England Patriots are salary capped constrained. Either the New England Patriots invest in the cornerback market or the wide receiver market. Considering the 2014 NFL Draft is deep at the wide receiver position, investing in the cornerback market during unrestricted free agency seems more prudent.
According to Miguel's latest projections, they are somewhere around 7 million or so under the cap, with a close eye on the possible charge of Hernandez in the double murder case, which may bolster their case to save a few bucks somewhere along the line.
They will obviously be freeing up even more money, just the same as every year through cuts that are obvious like Sopoaga, A.Wilson, etc. There will also be some "tough" or surprise cuts which will save even more money, and on top of that we should be seeing a restructuring or two which will add to the total even more for a guy like Wilfork. I fully expect them to have something in the high teens when everything is said and done, even if it's not all done at one time. They can free up money, just the same as any other team. The difference is that they aren't into robbing Peter to pay Paul too often, although they may even do some of that if they view it as appropriate for the next year or so.
You are more concerned than I am about cap money, as many of our conversations have shown, but when a guy like Amendola who is making 6 million AAV over the life of his contract had a 3.5m cap hit this year, there's no reason to believe that the same couldn't be done for someone like Talib just as well.
Every year we hear about the extremes of cap situations such as Tampa or Oakland's 50 million (or whatever the specific amounts are now), and how they'll be major players and immediately improve their teams, while others like Pittsburgh, Dallas, Baltimore, etc are 25 million OVER the cap, and won't even be able to field a team. One way or another, teams find a way to make room if and when they choose to do so. That can be done via shrewd business decisions like we have done throughout Belichick's tenure, or it can be done through "gambling" into future years a bit, which is not usually something that we care to do. The bottom line is that there are ways to free up cap space should they wish to do so, and I do not believe that forces the "either/or" issue of a decision between CB/WR.
As far as WR, I wouldn't be surprised to see one taken in the mid to late rounds, but I'd be surprised to see another higher round WR taken when we're already dealing with 3 rookie wide receivers again this year, and still didn't see those decisions pay off too well (and this is a year when we can honestly say that they weren't total failures) !! Using another high draft resource on a WR to gamble and attempt to get another rookie acclimated to the system may not be the best use of resources.
