Larry Brown Sports

No matter how he tries to spin it, Tom Brady is not happy that the New England Patriots allowed Wes Welker to sign with the Denver Broncos this offseason. Welker had been Brady’s favorite target for six years, with the two connecting for an average of 112 passes per season. When Brady restructured his contract to give the team more cap space, we all assumed Welker’s return was a given.

We were wrong.

Brady had to have discussed the return of Welker with New England’s front office. He was reportedly furious when the Patriots supposedly would not budge with their offer to the veteran receiver, but he has been with the team long enough to know how business-oriented they are.

“Those aren’t my demands,” Brady told WEEI’s Dennis and Callahan on Thursday when discussing why he restructured his deal. “I want us to field as competitive a team as we possibly can. And I have all the trust in the world that Mr. [Robert] Kraft and Jonathan [Kraft] and coach [Bill] Belichick will do that. There’s nothing about me, I don’t say that, I’m not general manager, I can’t say, ‘Look, I do this, you do this.’

“I don’t think anything surprises me any more in the NFL. I’ve been around long enough to see things happen at different times with the greatest players of all, whether that’s Wes, or Randy Moss being traded from the Raiders, or Brett Favre playing for the Jets and the Vikings. That’s what happens. Like I said, it’s a very tough, competitive business.”

Brady has begun working one-on-one with Danny Amendola and has probably already gotten over the departure of his close friend. That’s the type of competitor he is. That being said, there’s nothing No. 12 could say to make me believe the Patriots didn’t give him the impression that signing his cheaper contract extension would make it more feasible for the team to bring back Welker. Anyone who knows the Patriot Way knows better than that.

During his time with the New England Patriots, Wes Welker was arguably the most reliable receiver in the league. The 112 passes he caught per year proved he was Tom Brady’s favorite target, but that does not mean he will serve the same role for Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos.

Welker played alongside Randy Moss for three seasons, but he has never played with as talented a receiving corps as the one the Broncos will have in 2013. Eric Decker caught 85 passes for 1,064 yards and 13 touchdowns last season. Demaryius Thomas hauled in 94 passes for 1,434 yards and 10 touchdowns. To think that Welker will come in and match the production he had in New England would be unrealistic, and Welker is hoping that won’t be the case.

“If I have to catch 112 balls, that probably means we’re in trouble,” Welker said Monday after his first official practice with the Broncos, via the Denver Post. “(The catches) are not the goal. The goal is to go out there and help your team win games. However many catches that is, however many blocks that takes, however many routes I’ve got to run, whatever. I think we all feel the same way about that.”

Welker may not even catch 90 balls this season. Given the type of player he is, that just goes to show you how loaded Denver should be. Manning will have more weapons than any quarterback in the league. Barring any significant injuries, the Broncos may not have a receiver with over 85 catches next season. However, having three with 80 receptions is not out of the question.

Helmet smack to Around the League

Wes Welker played the role of safety valve to perfection for Tom Brady for six seasons. Any time the New England Patriots had to have a first down, Brady would always be looking to go to Welker. Now, the three-time Super Bowl champion will not have that option. Instead, he will have to rely on the newly-acquired Danny Amendola and his dynamic tight end duo of Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez.

Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark wonders if the aforementioned players will be enough. During an appearance on “NFL Live” On Monday, Clark talked about Welker’s importance to the Patriots, which he thinks has been understated.

“I think what’s really underestimated is Wes Welker’s importance to not only the New England Patriots, but Tom Brady,” he said, via ESPNBoston.com’s Mike Reiss. “A lot of what they do is timing. A lot of what they do is option reads, when you’re working inside against that nickelback or against those linebackers. Losing him is huge.

“I know they think Danny Amendola can come in and have the same type of numbers he had with the Rams, but we also have to remember, he’s fragile. He’s not a guy who has completed a whole season, especially playing inside in what can be a physical AFC East. You also think about Gronkowski and the injury; that is going to be bigger than anything for the New England Patriots coming in this year.”

The Patriots were not as concerned about Amendola’s injury history because most of his injuries have been to the upper body, but Clark makes some valid points. The chemistry Brady and Welker developed isn’t going to be instantly replicated by Brady and Amendola. Gronkowski’s health is also a major concern. However, there wouldn’t have been much bulletin board material for Bill Belichick to use if Clark had stopped there. He didn’t.

“In 2010, we saw it start with the Jets in the playoffs,” he continued. “When Tom Brady gets pressure and when you’re man-to-man and bumping those guys and making it hard for him to throw, he sees ghosts. Even when guys aren’t around him, even when he’s not about to be sacked, when his clock goes off in his head that the ball should be out, we’ll see him duck, we’ll see him flinch. When you get Tom Brady doing that, the whole New England Patriots mystique goes away.”

Again, some valid points. But Brady will probably use those points as motivation before the Steelers play the Patriots on Nov. 3. Health will be a major concern for New England heading into the season, but the same can be said for a lot of teams. Is it possible that this guy could be the answer? No, I didn’t think so either.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft tried to explain how the whole Wes Welker ordeal went down from the perspective of the team on Monday. Basically, Kraft blamed Welker’s agents. He said they misrepresented Welker by thinking he was going to get more on the open market than he was actually capable of getting, and that it was that line of reasoning that inspired the Patriots to move on Danny Amendola.

Not surprisingly, the agency that represents Welker claims that is not how the negotiations unfolded.

“Both sides are clear that the Patriots made one offer to Wes Welker since the prior negotiations ended in July 2012,” Athletes First wrote in a statement to NFL.com, which also praised Kraft for being a tremendous NFL owner. “Both sides also agree that this two-year offer came just hours before the start of free agency despite discussions that began at the NFL Combine. Moreover, this lone offer was presented as a ‘take it or leave it offer.’ When we asked if there was room for structural changes, we were told no.

“We made a counter-offer for the same term and same maximum dollar amount as their offer and it was rejected. We inquired if any of the offer’s components were negotiable and were told no. This refusal to actually negotiate made it easy to reject the Patriots offer. Nevertheless, when we received the Denver Broncos’ offer, Wes personally talked to Mr. Kraft to give the Patriots the opportunity to match it. The Patriots rejected this opportunity and Wes signed with the Denver Broncos.”

As Kraft said on Monday, he felt that incentives made New England’s offer better than Denver’s. However, there is some discrepancy over whether or not the incentives would have be reasonably attainable. Athlete’s First, while being quick to point out that it was not “blaming” anyone for what happened, said that the Patriots made it clear their offer was non-negotiable.

Time to move on. Personally, I believe both stories to an extent. The Patriots were likely stubborn with their initial offer and it sounds like Welker’s agents believed they were going to get far more than two years, $10 million with incentives. They did get more guaranteed money with the two-year, $12 million offer from the Broncos, but the Patriots had reportedly already secured Amendola by the time Welker came back with the Broncos’ offer. It sounds like the two sides were closer than they thought they were just before free agency began, which probably led to the divorce.

The New England Patriots generally refrain from getting into specifics with anything involving player contracts or business, but owner Robert Kraft gave some uncharacteristic comments on Monday in an attempt to clear up the Wes Welker situation. Basically, Kraft was trying to explain to Patriots fans how their beloved slot receiver was lost over a seemingly reasonable two-year, $12 million offer.

In summary, Kraft feels that New England’s offer of two years, $10 million plus incentives is a better deal that the one Welker took from Denver.

“I really believe in this case, his agents misrepresented, in their mind, what his market value was,” Kraft told reporters, via Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com. “When you come right down to the bottom line, he accepted a deal in Denver which is less money than what we offered him. In fact, he has a one-year deal in Denver for $6 million. Our last offer, before we would have even gone up and before we thought we were going into free agency, was a $10 million offer with incentives that would have earned him another $6 million if he performed the way he had the previous two years.

“But in Denver, he’s going to count $4 million against the cap this coming year and $8 million the second year. There is no guarantee that he plays the second year there. He will get $6 million the first year. Our deal, he would have gotten $8 million the first year – our last offer to him.”

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Wes Welker signed with the Denver Broncos on Wednesday, and there has been a ton of speculation about whether it was more his decision to leave or the decision of the New England Patriots to push him away. If Welker did indeed return to the Patriots after he was offered a two-year, $12 million contract from the Broncos to give New England a chance to match, why didn’t they want him at such a reasonable price?

Perhaps the reason is that the Patriots had already signed Danny Amendola. According to CSNNE.com’s Tom E. Curran, New England actually inked a deal with the former St. Louis Rams wideout on Tuesday. Apparently the Patriots had already made up their minds when Welker’s camp informed them that the 32-year-old would be testing the free agent market and seeking an annual salary of somewhere in the $8 million to $9 million-per-season range.

Curran said that the Patriots’ line of thinking was that they could not afford to miss out on both Welker and Amnendola. Since their offer to Wes was reportedly two years, $10 million, they clearly realized they were nowhere near the $8 million his agents said he would seek on the open market. In other words, New England did not react to the Broncos signing Welker by quickly locking down Amendola — he was already a Patriot.

It’s obvious that the Patriots did not value Welker all that highly. However, you have to wonder if they would have matched the two-year, $12 million offer had they not already gone ahead and signed Amendola. Perhaps they thought there were teams out there who would have offered significantly more than that, thus causing them to shift their focus when they realized there would be no hometown discount offered. The dynamics of the NFL are even more crazy and unpredictable than we thought.

As you may have heard, Wes Welker reportedly signed a two-year, $12 million contract with the Denver Broncos on Wednesday. New England Patriots fans are shocked that their team was unwilling to match or beat such a seemingly reasonable offer for one of the most productive players in their franchise’s history, but that has become the Patriot way over the years.

The bottom line is the Patriots insulted Welker. There will undoubtedly be a small group of fans who turn their frustrations toward the 32-year-old receiver and accuse him of chasing every last dollar, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. In fact, Welker may have taken less money to join forces with Peyton Manning. From ESPNBoston.com’s Mike Reiss:

He had interest from another AFC team offering two years and closer to $15 million, which was the top contract proposal Welker received in a market that didn’t unfold the way he and his representatives envisioned, but he didn’t pursue it because the club isn’t viewed as a contender. The Broncos, who visit the Patriots in 2013, are one of the AFC’s top contenders, which was important to Welker.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, that team was the Tennessee Titans. Welker is still in pursuit of a championship. He came up just short on two separate occasions with New England (thanks in part to an infamous dropped pass of his) and is entering the back end of his career. One report even claimed Welker went back to the Patriots after receiving an offer from Denver to see if they would match.

Bottom line: don’t blame Wes. He didn’t want every penny he was entitled to — he simply wanted a fair deal. He also wanted a chance to contend for a title, which he will certainly get in Denver the same way he would have in New England. Two years at $12 million should have been more than reasonable for a team that he caught over 600 passes with in six seasons, but Bill Belichick obviously had other plans. And he obviously didn’t care what Tom Brady had to say about it.