Welker 3/06 rumor of the day: Will go to Free Agency

[bagwell368]

My poorly stated point was and is that Welker has excelled and should be considered the reason for doing so. If one were to describe the skills of a wide receivers (separation skills, ball skills, route-running, durability, blocking, speed, quickness, football intelligence, toughness) what above-average skills does Welker have? I think several. If I am correct, then I see no reason why Welker could not replicate his success with the Patriots elsewhere.

Wes could do very well with P Manning. I doubt he'd be near as good with Schaub and Flacco for instance, or whatever the Jets trot out, etc.

 

[bagwell368]

That was actually media stirring the pot I believe, Mara came out and said it was bull**** and he fully intends on keeping both Cruz and Nicks.

Cruz is their priority this offseason at least, however if they can't agree to something Nicks is the better WR and should be their priority next year.

BB's interest in Cruz could just be to drive the price up. One team pays a lot in a contract, which will keep them from spending money on other FA's. BB has been known to fib interest and disinterest in FA's and the draft. Only time will tell.

Here is an if clause for you:

If Demps is asking out/gets cut, we sign Cribbs
If we turn our backs on Welker, we sign Edelman as a partial replacement
If we cut Lloyd we take that savings and money saved on Welker/Demps after we pay for Cribbs/Edelman and spend it on Jennings.
We spend a 2nd rounder (maybe from a deal to move up, or the 1st round pick down) and draft a WR like Hunter - or we sign that tall WR on the Bills - IF - we haven't already committed too much to CB, DL, OL, and S.

With AH being available for the slot/WR at times, that's a solid corps and we end up with an explosive kick returner and retain a decent pun returner in the bargain.

 

[Ivan]

You obviously have not been following my thoughts on this thread. I said edelman can provide maybe 70% of what welker did given the oppurtunity...didn't say edelman is welkers equal. And the money saved in not signing welker means more dough for thr defense. I would gladly trade some offense for some defense. They won 3 super bowls without welker, they can doit again.

You said "given the opportunity he could have much better stats," which is idiotic, period.


I quoted it, feel free to go back and read your own words.

 

[voluntarysaftey]

The best I can see welker getting is 3 years 27 mil with a 9m salary in the 3rd year (ie it can be turned into 2 year 18m or 3 year 27 m).

Look at Branch --
Age 31: 64 yards / game (with pats)
Age 32: 46 yards / game
Age 33: 14 yards / game

That is a somewhat typical dropoff for a receiver into their early 30s.

My guess is Welker will remain productive at a higher age than Branch did as it seems like Welker might be a harder offseason worker -- but for another team, it is a huge risk to pay to be guaranteeing him pay for Ages 33 onward.

The only thing that really sucks for Welker in hindsight is that the Patriots didn't draft him and he didn't hit free agency 3 years ago.

 

[Ivan]

You obviously have not been following my thoughts on this thread. I said edelman can provide maybe 70% of what welker did given the oppurtunity...didn't say edelman is welkers equal. And the money saved in not signing welker means more dough for thr defense. I would gladly trade some offense for some defense. They won 3 super bowls without welker, they can doit again.

The money saved from signing Amendola over Welker would be about 2 million a year, at most, which will get you Kyle Arrington's back up, that should go a long way to replacing 110 REC and the league leader in first downs and YAC.

Lemme see, Marquise Cole or Wes Welker, what should I do? What should I do?


Any money saved by not signing Welker will be eaten up by any attempts to try and replace his production, it won't free anything up for defense unless the plan is simply to get significantly worse on offense.