Wes Welker’s days as a New England Patriot may be numbered unless he plans to resign with the team on the cheap. Welker is 31 and according to the Boston Herald, a person with inside knowledge of the Patriots plans, says the team won’t Franchise welker at $11.8 million.
While there is no replacement for Welker on the roster, that won’t matter. Neither will the Patriots’ abysmal record of drafting wideouts. The Patriots are simply not going to put an $11.4 million franchise tag on Welker, someone with intimate knowledge of the team’s thinking said. Nor is he going to get an offer better than the one he turned down in 2011. So all his #leapoffaith got Welker was a decent one-year deal, but he’s got no grounds to complain because the Patriots long ago showed how they do business if you do yours the way he did his, which was to hold out a tin cup and hope they’d drop something in it.
Ron Borges, the columnist with the inside information, says Welker painted himself into this corner when he decided to turn down a fully guaranteed 2 year $16 million deal in 2011.
Once Welker signed the franchise tag last season, he pretty much sealed his fate in New England. Welker will now have to take a deal he’ll probably feel is way below market value, or take a chance that his reputation will carry him to a decent deal in free agency.