Danny Amendola has obviously enjoyed his four seasons with the New England Patriots, but you have to wonder how much. After taking a pay cut prior to both the 2015 and 2016 seasons, will the wide receiver be willing to do it again?
ESPN’s Mike Reiss wrote over the weekend that the Patriots are “leaving the door open” for Amendola to return next season, as they probably would have released him by now if it wasn’t an option. However, Amendola is scheduled to make a base salary of $6 million in 2017, and there’s no chance New England will be willing to pay him anything close to that.
Amendola agreed to a significant pay cut last offseason that dropped his salary from $6 million to around $1.5 million. The Patriots added star wide receiver Brandin Cooks via a trade with the New Orleans Saints this offseason and will ask more of Malcolm Mitchell heading into his second year, so Amendola will likely need to accept a similar deal this offseason if he wants to stay. He’d be the fifth option in the passing game behind Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski, Cooks and Mitchell.
At this point in his career, Amendola is not going to get much on the open market. A $4 million-plus pay cut sounds significant, but he knows he isn’t going to get $6 million from another team anyway. There are worse gigs than catching passes from Tom Brady and having a chance to win the Super Bowl every season, even if you get mistaken for one of your teammates from time to time.
