Curran: Amendola signed Tuesday, day before Welker left

[Fixit]

Yup
When its all said and done the Broncos got 100+ catch experienced, balls to the wall, tough as nails receiver for peanuts.

For the same money we got a receiver thats on field half a season at a time and will take two years to learn the system if he learns it at all.

If we get 75 catches out of that position next year will be lucky.

Brilliant.

Yeah, I remember when Wes was an experienced second-year receiver putting up 100+ catch seasons before Brady. It took him two years to learn the system, though. He never got hurt, either, except for that one time he blew out his ACL untouched, only was fortunate enough for it to happen in the last game of the season, so he technically didn't miss any games because of it.

Jesus, have any of you bridge-jumpers thought to compare Amendola's numbers with WW's pre-Brady numbers? Because Amendola's best two seasons were better than WW's two in Miami.

 

[Deus Irae]

Because the story goes from "the Pats were willing to pay Welker $5M per year, but not $6M per year" (which I found more than a little strange) to "the Pats had already decided to move on, and had already spend their budgeted amount for a slot receiver."

In other words, it was less a question of whether Welker was worth $6M per, and more a question of whether Welker was worth $8-9M per, with the added potential risk of losing out on both top targets if they waited around.

In any case, the Pats paid Amendola pretty handsomely, so 'cheapness' is the last thing that should be called into question. If there's anything that warrants questioning at this point, it's their loyalty to veterans (we already know that they don't have any) and their personnel evaluation.

Amendola got the same sort of comparitively small money that most players are getting this year. The Patriots are shopping at Walmart because the flat cap is causing a personnel bloodbath, according to them. This has been getting reported on the radio for some time now, well ahead of this past weekend. I'm not even saying that's bad, in general. I'm with you on that last line of your post.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

:ban:

I am glad Weker is gone the Pats have never won a SB with him. There is only so much a miget slot WR can do...good riddens.

Ian really needs to bring back the old Thumbs Down Thumbs Up feature

 

[BradyFTW!]

I am glad Weker is gone the Pats have never won a SB with him. There is only so much a miget slot WR can do...good riddens.

By that logic, I guess we should get rid of everyone except Brady and Wilfork. Which means there's only about 80 signings to make between now and TC.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

Yeah, I remember when Wes was an experienced second-year receiver putting up 100+ catch seasons before Brady. It took him two years to learn the system, though. He never got hurt, either, except for that one time he blew out his ACL untouched, only was fortunate enough for it to happen in the last game of the season, so he technically didn't miss any games because of it.

Jesus, have any of you bridge-jumpers thought to compare Amendola's numbers with WW's pre-Brady numbers? Because Amendola's best two seasons were better than WW's two in Miami.

Sam Bradford was rookie of the year, he threw to Amendola. Welker had Joey freaking Harrington throwing the ball. Totally different.
Also, you're adding up Amendola's 3 years (since he was hurt a LOT) to compare to Welker's years where he did it in fewer seasons because he actually played more full seasons

 

[DropKickFlutie]

Still: Wes Welker at $6 million is a bargain.

In this situation, they could've kept both on the roster. I thought the whole point was that Amendola could play outside, anyway?

This might turn out to work just fine. Honestly, it probably will.

But a weapon of Wes' caliber at $6 mill is too affordable to pass up. Sign Amendola, drop Lloyd, keep Wes, and draft a big WR in round 1. Wes is better than Lloyd at any WR position at this point. And the price difference is a couple mill. Denver got themselves a steal.

That said, if we use the money to get better on defense, you won't catch me complaining.

With this article it's even worse than originally thought. Amendola was not their backup plan, he was Plan A. They moved on from Welker before FA even started. They offered Amendola even more than what it would have cost to keep Welker. This has McDaniels' fingerprints all over it. Seeing as how he jerked the offense around the first 3 games last year, would not be surprised at all to see tons of forced throws and forced plays the first half of this season just so McDaniels can vindicate bringing in 4 ex-Rams over now.

 

[JackBauer]

With this article it's even worse than originally thought. Amendola was not their backup plan, he was Plan A. They moved on from Welker before FA even started. They offered Amendola even more than what it would have cost to keep Welker. This has McDaniels' fingerprints all over it. Seeing as how he jerked the offense around the first 3 games last year, would not be surprised at all to see tons of forced throws and forced plays the first half of this season just so McDaniels can vindicate bringing in 4 ex-Rams over now.

This scapegoating of McDaniels is beyond absurd.

I don't care how hard McDaniels lobbied for Amendola (assuming he lobbied for him at all); nothing happens on this team without BB's imprimatur. Nothing. So insofar as you think this is a bad move, the blame goes straight to the top.

 

[Fixit]

Also, you're adding up Amendola's 3 years (since he was hurt a LOT) to compare to Welker's years where he did it in fewer seasons because he actually played more full seasons

No, I'm not.

Welker's two seasons in Miami: 32 games/96 catches/1121 yards/53 first downs/1 touchdown.
Amendola's first two in St. Louis: 30 games/128 catches/1015 yards/55 first downs/4 touchdowns.

I do like the fact that you're saying that the QB makes a big difference, although it's apparently not relevant in Amendola's case.

 

[dannydyn]

That's weird to hear.... what would have happened that Welker accepted the Pats offer? We would have ended up with two slots?

 

[Sciz]

That's weird to hear.... what would have happened that Welker accepted the Pats offer? We would have ended up with two slots?

Amendola is not just a slot receiver

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

they moved on from him no matter what

 

[DropKickFlutie]

No, I'm not.

Welker's two seasons in Miami: 32 games/96 catches/1121 yards/53 first downs/1 touchdown.
Amendola's first two in St. Louis: 30 games/128 catches/1015 yards/55 first downs/4 touchdowns.

I do like the fact that you're saying that the QB makes a big difference, although it's apparently not relevant in Amendola's case.

Yes the QB makes a big difference. I'm not talking about Welker's Patriot years.
You're trying to insinuate that comparing Welker's pre-Pats production to Amendola's pre-Pats production, that Amendola is just as promising.

That is not true.

Amendola only played like 12 games the past 2 years after those numbers you posted. He's extremely injury prone. Also, Welker had that production with a far worse QB in Miami than Amendola had in St Louis

The fact the Pats were willing to pay more for Amendola, an unknown, instead of keep Welker for even lower money and who was a proven commodity and all-pro receiver, is very puzzling. This is a situation that doesn't really have a lot of evidence to support the decision. Even the big publications with articles supporting the move basically only say 'it's worked before', which isn't a great reason since Belichick is pulling a lot of recent moves with McDaniels' recommendation

 

[dannydyn]

Amendola is not just a slot receiver

Same body type. He lacks the height and weight to be an outside threat.

 

[patsfan13]

Well the other possibility was when they did Welker a favor by not announcing Amendola signing until after Welker signed elsewhere. This would help maintain Welker's market value. If the Pats weren't in the equation Welker would lose value, of course the benfit to the Pats was the other team tying up more of their cap in signing Welker.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

Same body type. He lacks the height and weight to be an outside threat.

He is taller and a bit faster than welker

 

[Sciz]

Same body type. He lacks the height and weight to be an outside threat.

Almost two inches taller, a little bit faster, and much better at catching with his hands. He's not a pure outside guy, but he's got much more outside ability than Welker. They would have been perfectly fine with Welker in the slot and Amendola outside.

 

[Jlaff]

Re: Amendola Signed By Pats On Tuesday

My thinking is that they still wanted Welker but at a cheap price. With the perception that Amendola was still in the market, other teams may not have been as desperate to give money to Welker. It also would have made Welker more money than they were offering.

Or you can take this perspective and come to the conclusion that by withholding this information they "screwed" Welker one last little bit on his FA value. "[BB] Clan ain't nothing to f..."

 

[RodThePat]

That's weird to hear.... what would have happened that Welker accepted the Pats offer? We would have ended up with two slots?

I see no reason as to why Amendola couldn't successfully play the Branch role.

 

[JackBauer]

I see no reason as to why Amendola couldn't successfully play the Branch role.

I think/hope we signed him to be more than a useless decoy.

 

[Fixit]

Yes the QB makes a big difference. I'm not talking about Welker's Patriot years.
You're trying to insinuate that comparing Welker's pre-Pats production to Amendola's pre-Pats production, that Amendola is just as promising.

That is not true.

Amendola only played like 12 games the past 2 years after those numbers you posted. He's extremely injury prone. Also, Welker had that production with a far worse QB in Miami than Amendola had in St Louis

The fact the Pats were willing to pay more for Amendola, an unknown, instead of keep Welker for even lower money and who was a proven commodity and all-pro receiver, is very puzzling. This is a situation that doesn't really have a lot of evidence to support the decision. Even the big publications with articles supporting the move basically only say 'it's worked before', which isn't a great reason since Belichick is pulling a lot of recent moves with McDaniels' recommendation

So Amendola is somehow less promising because he put up better numbers with a marginally better QB? Saying, "That is not true" regarding who is more promising is 100% your opinion. The production says otherwise.

Both Amendola and Welker had season-killing injuries. Amendola was just unlucky enough to have his in Week 1 and Welker in Week 17. Just flip the timing of the injuries and the durability question goes the other way.

What's the most puzzling about this is that you don't have 1/100th of the info that one of the best organizations in sports has, and yet you pretend you know better than they do.

Jesus, Amendola played 11 games last year and produced as much as Welker did in his best Miami season.

THEY'RE BOTH VERY GOOD RECEIVERS.