Rumor or Speculation (IDK): Patriots shopping Amendola

[primetime]

Exactly and if Amendola had been a low risk I would not have had an issue with his season. He was not low risk though, he received the biggest contract this team has given since Thomas.

And the other option was to roll into the draft with an oft-injured punt returner and some journeymen like Michael Jenkins as the only wide receivers on the roster.

Amendola's on the team. Cutting him would make no sense from a cap perspective. I just don't understand what you're trying to debate here, other than attempting to go full crazy by suggesting the Patriots should cut Amendola and eat the cap hit then sign Austin Collie as his full-time replacement (since you think Edelman will be too expensive as well) and go into next year with Dobson, Collie, and Thompkins as your top options.

If you're arguing from history - that the Patriots never should have signed Amendola in the first place - you're tilting at windmills anyways. It happened. All the digital ink in the world isn't going to change that.

 

[50-yard-line]

Exactly and if Amendola had been a low risk I would not have had an issue with his season. He was not low risk though, he received the biggest contract this team has given since Thomas.

Yep, they paid to get what they thought would be the best replacement for the guy they couldn't keep. He could not have been gotten cheaper, and would have signed somewhere else.

Where would that have left them? And if JE had signed somewhere else, or had not stayed healthy for the first time in his career, where would that have REALLY left them?

It's always a crap shoot. UFA and the draft, and even with the guys you have (Wilfork last year). WR is an expensive position in the NFL.

Too much so, which is why the highest paid WR on the Pats is under 6/year. How many teams can say that?

 

[Brady6]

And the other option was to roll into the draft with an oft-injured punt returner and some journeymen like Michael Jenkins as the only wide receivers on the roster.

Amendola's on the team. Cutting him would make no sense from a cap perspective. I just don't understand what you're trying to debate here, other than attempting to go full crazy by suggesting the Patriots should cut Amendola and eat the cap hit then sign Austin Collie as his full-time replacement (since you think Edelman will be too expensive as well) and go into next year with Dobson, Collie, and Thompkins as your top options.

If you're arguing from history - that the Patriots never should have signed Amendola in the first place - you're tilting at windmills anyways. It happened. All the digital ink in the world isn't going to change that.

Yep, they paid to get what they thought would be the best replacement for the guy they couldn't keep. He could not have been gotten cheaper, and would have signed somewhere else.



Where would that have left them? And if JE had signed somewhere else, or had not stayed healthy for the first time in his career, where would that have REALLY left them?



It's always a crap shoot. UFA and the draft, and even with the guys you have (Wilfork last year). WR is an expensive position in the NFL.



Too much so, which is why the highest paid WR on the Pats is under 6/year. How many teams can say that?

Ok so let's just put 2013 in the rear view. If we resign Edelman we no longer need Amendola for the same role as we did when originally signed. Why would we pay him the same value? The cap hit affects us no matter what the $4.8M is going to hit the cap at some point, you do not pay more just to delay that hit.

 

[resdubwhite]

Exactly and if Amendola had been a low risk I would not have had an issue with his season. He was not low risk though, he received the biggest contract this team has given since Thomas.

of which 10 million is guaranteed. Its hardly a major disaster. BTW. Gronk and the prisoner got bigger contracts. so you're wrong there.

 

[Brady6]

of which 10 million is guaranteed. Its hardly a major disaster. BTW. Gronk and the prisoner got bigger contracts. so you're wrong there.

I'm not wrong they were Patriots who signed extensions. They had produced for this team it is totally different. Amendola received the biggest UFA contract since Thomas.

 

[alvinnf]

This team should keep JE and DA. What they really need is another legit TE like Chandler from Buffalo. They need to insulate themselves from the next Gronk injury. I am comfortable with Dobson outside if they have another legit inline TE. Dobson and Thompkins should be much improved in year 2.

 

[primetime]

Ok so let's just put 2013 in the rear view. If we resign Edelman we no longer need Amendola for the same role as we did when originally signed. Why would we pay him the same value? The cap hit affects us no matter what the $4.8M is going to hit the cap at some point, you do not pay more just to delay that hit.

So then you're left with Edelman - a player who has been healthy only once in his career - and some questionable second year players.

Edelman and Amendola have proven effective while on the field at the same time. There's no reason to take the cap hit by releasing him rather than keep Amendola.

At this point, you should probably resign yourself to the fact that Amendola is going to be on the team next year. You've spent enough time and words on Amendola in the last couple months that you probably could have written a fairly decent sized novel instead. It's okay to give it up, now.

 

[Brady6]

So then you're left with Edelman - a player who has been healthy only once in his career - and some questionable second year players.



Edelman and Amendola have proven effective while on the field at the same time. There's no reason to take the cap hit by releasing him rather than keep Amendola.



At this point, you should probably resign yourself to the fact that Amendola is going to be on the team next year. You've spent enough time and words on Amendola in the last couple months that you probably could have written a fairly decent sized novel instead. It's okay to give it up, now.

I will not lose any sleep if he is on the team. That aside, I'm not sure why you think that he will be here? Most of what has transpired this offseason would indicate it is 50/50 at best.

Amendola and Edelman have not proven effective on the field at the same time. In 11 of 14 games Amendola averaged 3 receptions and 32 yards per game.

 

[primetime]

I will not lose any sleep if he is on the team. That aside, I'm not sure why you think that he will be here? Most of what has transpired this offseason would indicate it is 50/50 at best.

Amendola and Edelman have not proven effective on the field at the same time. In 11 of 14 games Amendola averaged 3 receptions and 32 yards per game.

What has transpired this offseason, Brady6? Did the Patriots acquire a reliable veteran receiver while I wasn't looking? Did Aaron Dobson suddenly emerge as the next coming of Randy Moss? All that I've seen was a musing by Dan Pompei at the Bleacher Report (not a real publication, by the way, since they accept unsolicited, unedited pieces from literally anyone) which he later recanted because he realized it made no sense. I'm not sure how this translated to 50/50 anywhere but in your imagination.

I won't even bother with your statistics cherry-picking.

 

[Brady6]

What has transpired this offseason, Brady6? Did the Patriots acquire a reliable veteran receiver while I wasn't looking? Did Aaron Dobson suddenly emerge as the next coming of Randy Moss? All that I've seen was a musing by Dan Pompei at the Bleacher Report (not a real publication, by the way, since they accept unsolicited, unedited pieces from literally anyone) which he later recanted because he realized it made no sense. I'm not sure how this translated to 50/50 anywhere but in your imagination.

UFA and the draft have yet to happen. That aside, Amendola is not a reliable veteran receiver, if anything he would be labeled unreliable, so the acquisition of one does not influence him at all, Dobson does not need to develop into Moss either. Randy Moss was one of the best WR ever; Amendola was an UDFA who has a career high of 689 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns. We could replace 54 receptions, 633 yards and 2 touchdowns; I am not concerned with that whatsoever.

I won't even bother with your statistics cherry-picking.

I am not cherry picking stats, I am looking at his game log, and I see three games where he had 100+ yards in a game against the Bills, Steelers, and Dolphins. The first thing about that stands out about those games is is in all three of those games Amendola’s success was secondary to another offensive player having a great game, Vereen in week one, Gronkowski in week nine, and Edelman in week fifteen.

When I look at his season’s game log, I see the following –

- Less than 5 receptions in 10 of 14 games played and 3 or less receptions in 7 of 14 games played.
- Less than 10 yards receiving in 3 of 14 games, less than 20 receiving yards in 5 of 14 games played and less than 50 receiving yards in 8 of 14 games played.

If you remove the three games against the Bills, Steelers, and Dolphins you are left with 33 receptions for 353 yards in 11 games played, you do the math. My stats are not cherry picked they are focusing on the fact that Amendola sucked in 78% of the games he played, and missed 4 other games due to injury, which means all totaled in 15 of 18 games played by the Patriots which is 83.33% of their games Amendola failed to produce anything of substance for the team.

As far as what has transpired, that Bleacher Report reporter does not offer enough significance to justify every media outlet from ESPN, NFL Network, SI, CBS, Yahoo, NESN, and others to report the possibility of Amendola being cut or traded. There is more to it than that.

Let me ask you a question, do you find it the least bit odd that prior to the dropped touchdown pass in Miami in week fifteen Amendola had been targeted 14 times in that game by Brady and 77 times on the season. After that drop, he was only targeted 12 times the rest of the year, which spanned four games? Basically he was targeted 7.7 times per contest leading up to that drop, and just 3 times per contest after that. For the record, I thought it was a difficult catch that could have gone either way and I do not think it should reflect poorly on Amendola, I even defended him at the time, but I do find it telling that his opportunity was reduced by so drastically after that.