Massive Welker Conspiracy DeBunked!

[BTTA]

The only receiver in football who had a better season than Welker was Calvin Johnson, he received 120+million dollar extension. Offering Welker less than 17 for 2 years is pathetic, suggesting that is bargaining in good faith is ludicrous

You know this is an apples and oranges comparison. Regardless, the measure of "good faith" vs. "bad faith" is in the process, not in the result.

"Wes, we don't pay that kind of money for WR here in New England. Sorry, that's just the way we run the operation, and salary structure is a big part of our success. But if you can get it somewhere else, more power to you. We'll tag you this year, you can make about $10M to play a game, and then next year you can go out and land one of those deals somewhere if you want."

 

[borg]

Garcon's contract will end when he turns 30.
Holmes contract will end when he turns 31.
The dollars both received come from desperate teams that lack talent at their skill positions. Both teams hope to strike gold during the prime years....26-30.

Fitzgerald is a different matter.Currently 29...extended to 2017 at 17 mill/yr . His dollars come from a desperate franchise with only one marquis player to put fannies in the seats. Face it....17 mill for five catches/game.....good luck with that formula.

Older stud WRs that fall in the 5 catch/game category....
Roddy White(30) averaging $8 mill/ thru 2015
Steve Smith(33) averaging $9.5 mill thru 2016

Now lets look at Troy Brown
From age 22-28, Brown's most productive season was 41 catches.
From age 29-31, Brown caught between 83-101 passes playing in 16, 16, and 14 games
At 32....12 games....40 catches
At 33....12 games....17 catches
At 34....13 games....39 catches
At 35....16 games....43 catches

So the Patriots may seem cold hearted when it comes to Wes' future $$$.....but they have been down this road before....and they have seen first hand how production of the little slot guy can go from a gusher to a trickle over night. Wes is going into his 6th season with NE....with 5 seasons of high production resulting in over 550 tackles just in the past 5 years. Aging little guy getting tackled 100+ times/yr by bigger guys....it can't go on forever as history has shown.

 

[The Boston Patriot]

Just because they said it doesn't mean it's true. It could be true or it could be a convenient excuse. I wouldn't be surprised if Welker is pissed about not getting paid and is holding out of preseason games to reduce the chances he gets hurt. I wouldn't blame him either.

I fear for humanity when I read something like this. What in heaven have we done to the USA gene pool in our lifetime?

 

[Peachhead]

"Death in the family"

My sincere condolences Wes.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

The only receiver in football who had a better season than Welker was Calvin Johnson, he received 120+million dollar extension. Offering Welker less than 17 for 2 years is pathetic, suggesting that is bargaining in good faith is ludicrous

Come on, man. Calvin Johnson is 26. Wes Welker turned 31 in May. That comparison doesn't work and there's nothing "ludicrous" about the situation. Borg did the heavy lifting data-wise on this subject and I suggest you study his post.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Garcon's contract will end when he turns 30.
Holmes contract will end when he turns 31.
The dollars ....it can't go on forever as history has shown.

Thanks for the data. Great post!

 

[rookBoston]

I think it's illuminating that BB + Kraft extended Hernandez, Gronk and Love, who didnt need extensions, but can't find a long term agreement with Welker. Prior post with metrics on Troy's drop off in productivity are spot on. BB is going to pay for future productivity, not past productivity. So there's legit cause to be concerned that the two sides have a fundamental disagreement in principle on value. If it seems like something neither side can get past, then Welker doesn't have much longer with this team. Either via trade or FA.

The idea that he was skipping practice out of contract frustration with negotiations is ridiculous. He was not obligated to sign the tender and show up for camp at all. He did it because the tender is rich, and he wants to be with the team playing football. That hasn't changed.

Whoever thought faking a death in the family was part of a conspiracy is being ridiculous. But that doesn't mean there aren't underlying issues with Welker as a Patriot beyond this year. And that raises questions whether BB may not find the idea of a trade appealing, while Wes is still under the team's control.

 

[Gronkandez]

I fear for humanity when I read something like this. What in heaven have we done to the USA gene pool in our lifetime?

No need for the condescending attititude. I realize you're a Rhodes Scholar and therefore are intellectually superior than me but you don't need to be a dbag about it?

 

[ausbacker]

No need for the condescending attititude. I realize you're a Rhodes Scholar and therefore are intellectually superior than me but you don't need to be a dbag about it?

A rock with a face drawn on it would have made a smarter comment than your initial post toward Wes Welker. There was no need for a Rhodes Scholar.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Every now and then a situation arises with a valuable player that puts to the test the Krafts' approach to contracts ("It's a 53 player Roster. Pay for the future, not the past. Only very rarely pay at or close to the top of the market.").

When this happens, it tends to divide us fans along "Pay the Guy" and "Don't Pay the Guy" lines. Sometimes it even leads to phantasmagorical thinking and conspiracy theories, as it has in this thread.

In Welker's case the Irresistible Force of a great player's skills and contributions to the Patriots has met the Immovable Object of the Patriots' unwillingness to fund a multi-year contract to a 31 year old guy who is coming up on the end of his career.

The only thing that the Krafts get at all sentimental about is NFL Championships. But, even contributions to two or three shiny Lombardi's weren't enough for Bob and Jonathan to break their rules for Asante Samuel or Adam Vinatieri. We shouldn't expect them to act any differently in the case of a player who has tried mightily but hasn't helped deliver a Championship and who many think let one slip through his fingers.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Just because they said it doesn't mean it's true. It could be true or it could be a convenient excuse....

There are medications you can take when your thoughts get into patterns like that.

Someone did die. Welker did go to the funeral. His attendance at the funeral did keep him away from the team. Repeat it a few times.

 

[Silver Blue&Red]

Great point, Welker is worth less than a 3rd of what Santonio Holmes and Pierre Garcon got.


Same old same old, Welker shows his decency and Patriot fans use it against him. Stay classy Patriot fans,



BTW-Great thread yesterday, Welker sure was pouting, glad you guys were able to discuss it at length.

Lighten up there Francis. Its a discussion board. I dont think WW Gives Schit what anyone here thinks.

 

[Gronkandez]

A rock with a face drawn on it would have made a smarter comment than your initial post toward Wes Welker. There was no need for a Rhodes Scholar.

I did not articluate my thought well. I didn't mean to imply it was a staged death. Let me try again.

Wes and BB refused to comment, other than Wes saying it was personal issues. In the interviews I saw they both seemed a little ticked (just my opinion). I'm of the opinion that if the Patriots excused a player from practice and a game they would say that.

I think many people interpreted Bedards tweet to mean Welker was excused by the team. I don't necessarily think that's the case.

Has Welker played at all this preseason? If he didn't play vs the Saints does anyone recall the reason?

 

[patsfaninpittsburgh]

I did not articluate my thought well. I didn't mean to imply it was a staged death. Let me try again.

Wes and BB refused to comment, other than Wes saying it was personal issues. In the interviews I saw they both seemed a little ticked (just my opinion). I'm of the opinion that if the Patriots excused a player from practice and a game they would say that.

I think many people interpreted Bedards tweet to mean Welker was excused by the team. I don't necessarily think that's the case.

Has Welker played at all this preseason? If he didn't play vs the Saints does anyone recall the reason?

So do unicorns poop Skittles and have pixie dust dandruff?

Maybe patsfans.com needs body language/interprative experts to give the true insight.

Better yet how about doing a national search on obituaries and get back to us.

 

[Frezo]

So do unicorns poop Skittles and have pixie dust dandruff?

Maybe patsfans.com needs body language/interprative experts to give the true insight.

Better yet how about doing a national search on obituaries and get back to us.

LANCE WELKER Obituary: View LANCE WELKER's Obituary by The Oklahoman

 

[Ivan]

You know this is an apples and oranges comparison. Regardless, the measure of "good faith" vs. "bad faith" is in the process, not in the result.

"Wes, we don't pay that kind of money for WR here in New England. Sorry, that's just the way we run the operation, and salary structure is a big part of our success. But if you can get it somewhere else, more power to you. We'll tag you this year, you can make about $10M to play a game, and then next year you can go out and land one of those deals somewhere if you want."

Your missing the point. The Franchise tag is not supposed to be used to deny a player a fair market deal, only to give a team more time to get one done with the player, which is why it says that teams are required to negotiate in good faith. What the Patriots did was use the tag solely to prevent Welker from being offered a fair market deal while maintaining the rights to him for one year. Make all the excuses for the Patriots you want to, their behavior in this instance has been deplorable.

 

[Ivan]

Lighten up there Francis. Its a discussion board. I dont think WW Gives Schit what anyone here thinks.

Actually I stayed out of this thread until someone tried to claim the Patriots were actually negotiating with Welker in good faith, which is BS. If you can't handle someone criticizing the team every once in a while i suggest you find a bigger fanboy site, although that may be hard to do.

 

[Ivan]

Come on, man. Calvin Johnson is 26. Wes Welker turned 31 in May. That comparison doesn't work and there's nothing "ludicrous" about the situation. Borg did the heavy lifting data-wise on this subject and I suggest you study his post.

All his post did was show that a deal closer to Fitzgerald's was what was in order, what Troy Brown did was irrelevant to any of this, and had they felt he was going to catch 40 balls they wouldn't have tagged him. They tagged him solely to keep another team from paying him what he was worth when they had no intention of doing so, that's abusing the tag and it should be challenged as a violation of the CBA.

 

[Sicilian]

or it could be a convenient excuse.

There is nothing convenient about a death in the family.

 

[Ivan]

Come on, man. Calvin Johnson is 26. Wes Welker turned 31 in May. That comparison doesn't work and there's nothing "ludicrous" about the situation. Borg did the heavy lifting data-wise on this subject and I suggest you study his post.

Using that logic they should get rid of Brady and go with a young QB, QB's his age don't get it done.

As with his post that's irrelevant imo, but if you want to go by produciton by age then that's what you get. Imo both Brady and Welker have 4-5 more years of playing at a high level, we'll see who is right.