Wondering the same thing myself…
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The Best of PatsPropaganda This Week
The official start of the 2013 NFL league year starts this week, and already teams and the agents of free agents have started speaking today gauging potential interest and deals.
In other words if there ever was an NFL offseason it’s about to end. It should be an exciting couple weeks for Patriots fans, with plenty of holes to fill and moves to make, there will be plenty to analyze.
Here’s the best from the last dead week before free agency starts:
Patriots’ Patience Will Pay off in NFL Free Agency
Breaking Down a First-Down Fix for the Patriots Defense
Yahoo! Sports’ Jason Cole on M&M: Wes Welker ‘realizes this is the best place for him to be’
Predicting New England Patriots’ Free Agent Signings
Unchartered waters ahead in NFL free agency – Sports – The Boston Globe
Still taking submissions from designers who might like to design our 2013 PatsProp t-shirt.
Kraft said that the salary cap would remain relatively flat for several years. Gone were the days when clubs could rely on a dramatic spike from one year to the next to provide financial flexibility. Not everyone bought it, including some of Kraft’s fellow owners who kept spending and spending. Now those doubters are paying a different kind of price, forced to release players to get under the slow-growing salary cap (hello, Carolina Panthers). Every day, it seems, more quality players are being cut, creating a buyer’s market for clubs that were disciplined in not writing out too many big checks over the last two post-lockout seasons.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/kraft-said-that-the-salary-cap-would-remain/
Try to predict New England s secondary for the next season?
McCourty and…. three other guys who aren’t in jail, aren’t too expensive, don’t get hurt in training camp/preseason, especially a strong safety who can cover tight ends, and a couple physical corners capable of playing man and zone.
Bland Version: Dennard, Wilson, McCourty, Dowling.
Sexy Free Agent Version: Dowling, Reed, McCourty, Talib.
Rookie Impact Version: Dennard, Eric Reid, McCourty, Logan Ryan
The real version lies somewhere in a combo of all those.
How big of a contract wll Welker end up getting?
I’d be shocked if it was more than four years. Ideally for the Pats I’d bet they’re willing to go three years, four might be stretching it. I’d expect a front-loaded contract with lots of protection against injury and playtime incentives at the end of it.
From a realistic POV I’d expect the Pats to be aiming to give him around $15 million over the next two seasons guaranteed with the rest of the money and years easily dumpable. So even if it’s 4-years, $30 million, a big chunk will vest first, then the rest will require Welker stay healthy and productive.
I keep hearing/reading that Vollmer is the priority signing of the big three free agents. I assumed it to be true until I actually thought about it: We can’t develop WR’s or CB’s, but were fortunate enough to have the best O line coach in the NFL, allowing us to shuffle our O line with relative ease. Add that up and logic tells me Vollmer shouldn’t be the priority. Agree?
I agree to an extent, but it’s not like there’s just a line of offensive linemen waiting to hop in and start at right tackle on the roster at the moment. And I never really like say “oh we have great coaching, we can plug anyone in and they’ll be fine.” Vollmer has elite size and despite some injury history he is still in his prime, and is involved in every offensive play, while WRs and CBs are not.
That said, it wouldn’t be too much to pick up another right tackle in free agency and draft one, but they don’t have a lot of picks this year, so do you want to add another need? And you’d also have to find a new back-up left tackle, so his departure would open up a couple needs, and most people seem to think the best back-up tackle we have (Marcus Cannon) is more suited for guard.
I could see it go either way if someone’s willing to make Vollmer a big offer, the Pats will not overextend themselves for a right tackle. But I think the safest bet is to bring him back and keep Brady’s protection air tight for his twilight years.