Money is only an issue when money's an issue. Your argument is ludicrous. I'll leave it at that, because I assume Andy will fillet it with much more gusto than I have for dealing with this sort of silliness regarding Welker for the 1000th time.
You're saying yuo have no argument so you're going to wait for your big brother to come in and put words in my mouth to twist my point around so that he can try to discredit it. Pretty interesting that according to you my argument is "ludicrous" when I backed it up with examples that have already happened on the Patriots. They extended 2 of their players 2 years early in their deals, and they may want to do it again at some point.
What is ludicrous is the idea that "Money is only an issue when money is an issue." Sounds like Dan Synder talking.. Sounds like those people that pay off one credit card with another credit card.. You have to constantly be managing your cap and thinking 2 or even 3 years into the future with every contract that you make to avoid having money problems in the first place.
At the end of the day, there are no facts here, its all speculation and subjective opinion.
I feel that if Edelman was THE guy and he had to be counted on like Welker every single play, he could put up 80-90 receptions in this offense. Obviously that is a drop off from Welker, so you have to look at what the savings are from WW to Edelman, then with that money how much talent can you add to the team in other areas, and will that talent ultimately make the team more effective OVERALL. The offensive production might go down a bit, but if the defensive production goes up then they ultimately could be better.
I think it also comes down to the fact that some people saw this coming years ago and have had time to mentally adjust and deal with it. I knew if they didn't give him his extension years ago, they would be at this exact point and would have a very real chance of losing Welker.
He is not a Calvin Johnson type receiver, he does not warrant that kind of money because he doesn't impact the game in the way that a C. Johnson does. He can't stretch the field, he can't jump over people and fight for a jump ball in double or triple coverage. He relies on his quickness and his knowledge of the offense, and at 32 years old you just don't know when that quickness is going to start fading. He also makes a living in the middle of the field, Welker has taken some big shots and at some point he may not be able to get back up from one of those hits.. If that happens, then you have a $10M/YR WR being paid to rehab. Granted, Welker has proven to be tough and durable, but hes at that age now where some players have shown a dropoff in production. I'd be fine with them giving him 3/30, but I think hes going to want more than that and hes going to want at least a 4-5 year deal to retire on.
Welker is almost identical to what Marvin Harrison was around this same time in his career. The Colts gave Harrison a mega contract and a few years later he retired and they were getting raped with his cap hits.
The Colts and a few other teams got bailed out because of the uncapped year, which allowed teams to recover from all of their cap debt so to speak.
