Amendola signed - 5 years

[The_Riddler]

Great move, got younger, high upside and will be a natural in this offense with TB and Josh. Great move.

Now lets focus on a DRC, Talib or Sean Smith to combine with Pollard.

 

[everlong]

Amadola is a much better player tha Welker was in Miami , but of course the injuries a big concern.

Except DA at least had Sam Bradford getting him the ball. If he comes in and has a Welker season I'll do a huge mea culpa and remember when NEM was going off I was one of the people like you defending the WW signing.

 

[PP2]

I will be ****ed if Amendola even understands half of what Welker understands about this offense.

 

[JDot]

Alright, let's get a deep threat in the draft. And work on our D. Love this signing...

 

[FredFromDartmouth]

josh got his man, as I said last night.

And Josh as done such a great job with the other receiver he brought to the Patriots (Lloyd)

 

[Sciz]

Ryan Swope:

6' 206 pounds 4.34 forty 22 years old

Danny Amendola:

5'11 188 pounds 27 years old

I don't know. We'll see, but I feel that would of been the better, cheaper way if we were going the unproven route.

Swope had four (confirmed) concussions in college. Put him in the slot and he's Austin Collie.

 

[DaBruinz]

Kind of interesting tweet from Rapoport:

Ian Rapoport ‏@RapSheet
I don't believe in coincidences. So: Welker leaves Patriots for $6M per year in Denver. Danny Amendola signs for $6.1M per year #Math


Bit of "so there" by the Pats?

Except that Rapoport can't do math. 31/5 = 6.2 not 6.1

Kinda like Rapoport can't actually break a story.

 

[JonVaughnTD]

Kind of interesting tweet from Rapoport:

Ian Rapoport ‏@RapSheet
I don't believe in coincidences. So: Welker leaves Patriots for $6M per year in Denver. Danny Amendola signs for $6.1M per year #Math


Bit of "so there" by the Pats?

That number was probably agreed upon (at least on the Patriots side) before Welker signed with Denver.

 

[MUFC7]

Welker had a great understanding of this system. His meassurements were never his biggest treat. His quickness and understanding of the option routes made him this great slot receiver for TB. Many WR failed in this system and some thrived in it like Branch because it takes a lot of football IQ to properly understand it. Talk about younger,faster anything you want, until he is 1) healty 2) putting up comparable numbers I say this was a HUGE gamble that I hope will pay off.

 

[dannydyn]

I will be ****ed if Amendola even understands half of what Welker understands about this offense.

Or it could be ****ing awesome, if Amendola not only understands it, but also makes it better.... how about that angle?

 

[DaBruinz]

"Could," of course, being the operative word.

It'll be interesting to see how much WW's on the field in Denver, and Amendola here.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Denver switch to the spread as their base. This is a formation that Manning LOVES. Welker, Decker, Thomas. Not looking forward to trying to defend against that.

 

[patfanken]

Until we get a breakdown of the entire deal, I would focus more on the $10MM guarantee than the $31MM total. It seems in most of these deals the guarantee is usually close to a half of the contract. The fact that we are dealing with only guaranteeing a third of deal is decent protection for the Pats if it doesn't work out. I'm doubting his cap number this year will be more than $3MM.

I think the thing that pleases me most about this signing was how quickly it happened. I don't know what I would have done if we had to go through a couple of day or weeks hearing the whine of the complainers talking about Matthew Slater being our top WR.

Time will tell how it works out. We might not have the the best receiver corp in the league, but if we resign Edelman, it will be the whitest.

Finally, I don't imagine that Welker and Amendola have the same skill set, and I think that's by design. This offense is going to change this season. I'm seeing more slant, and seam passes. More quick strikes to get deep into the secondary, and more running and throwing to RB's.

 

[moosekill]

As far as injuries go, Welker blew out his knee and missed, what, six months of football? It just so happens it occurred in the last regular season game of the year. If it had happened on the first, which it could have, he would have missed the entire season. If that had happened he would have missed 15 games that year. But that is the thing about injuries, you never know when they will happen and why, a lot of it is just plain luck.

 

[mgcolby]

For those calling Amendola injury prone because of two freak injuries, must think Gronk is injury proned as well.

And I ask if Welker tore his knee in week 1 of 2010 and then broke his collarbone in week 5 of 2011 would you say he is injury prone? Hell he is so set on being Welker he even suffered his elbow injury in an situation where he was untouched.

The guy is very productive and was productive in a terrible offense. Unless he has some kind of curse that causes him to have freak injury after freak injury he should be all set.

 

[JMC00]

what'd he say?

That the Patriots were absolutely fine with letting Welker walk and signing Amendola.

 

[zipster9]

Welker had a great understanding of this system. His meassurements were never his biggest treat. His quickness and understanding of the option routes made him this great slot receiver for TB. Many WR failed in this system and some thrived in it like Branch because it takes a lot of football IQ to properly understand it. Talk about younger,faster anything you want, until he is 1) healty 2) putting up comparable numbers I say this was a HUGE gamble that I hope will pay off.

I wonder if JoshMcDaniels has anything to do with this? Lloyd and now Amendola...

 

[Brady6]

People don't get it. Pretend Amendola is an iron man that plays 16 games every year. He's still an inferior player to Welker, and we just gave him 6 million a year.

I guess that remains to be scene if he is in fact inferior.

Prior to Brady
Welker - 32 games, 96 receptions, 1121 yards, 11.67 yards per catch, 1 touchdown
Amendola - 42 games, 196 receptions, 1726 yards, 8.8 yards per catch, 7 touchdowns

 

[andrewgarrr]

I wonder if JoshMcDaniels has anything to do with this? Lloyd and now Amendola...

Nah. The front office and BB would never ask the offensive coordinator if a certain skill player would fit into his scheme.

 

[Rob0729]

Except DA at least had Sam Bradford getting him the ball. If he comes in and has a Welker season I'll do a huge mea culpa and remember when NEM was going off I was one of the people like you defending the WW signing.

Sam Bradford had a great rookie season, but it would have been mediocre if he was a veteran. He was decent last year.

Amadola is a better receiver right now than Welker was when he came here. Doesn't mean he will be 1/10th the player Welker was in a Pats' uniform. Doesn't mean he can't be just as good or better. To declare him a horrible addition at this point though is way premature.

I would have rather paid Welker just because he is a known successful commodity, but Amadola has the tools to be a special player in this offense as long as he can stay healthy. A problem he had a lot in his career thus far.

 

[Ring 6]

I'm glad we traded our heart and soul for the past 5 years, a guy who has proven to battle through injuries and came back from an ACL injury months before anyone thought even possible for him, a guy who is a lock for Patriots HOF and has a chance at the NFL HOF, a guy who had done what was right and not complained about his contract despite being massively underpaid for 5 years, our all pro, pro bowl, historically great receiver for..

..a decent role player who can't stay healthy, has never played for the Patriots, at three times the amount of money we were going to give Welker.


I was all for letting Welker walk to save money. My guess is the Patriots thought he would cave and played hardball and they realize how much the completely screwed the championship ready team by alienating their two top WRs and panicked and were forced to sign Amendola.

Personell decisions cannot be emotional, so all the 'he was underpaid' stuff is irrelevant.
Amednola will probably carry a first year cap hit of about 3-3.5mill, while Welker will be at least 2 mill more than that.
If 16 mill of the 31 is in the 4th and 5th year, its not really paying more.

Also, Welker was not replaced by Amendola. Amendola is a new receiver who will fill his own role, not Welkers.