Failure to sign Welker remains highly unpopular with the fans

Listening to the radio today, its clear that the Patriots' failure to sign Wes Welker remains extremely unpopular with the fans. If you think Patriots fans never criticize their own team, or the Head Coach, or the organization, you simply don't know the real facts.
I think the Pats offense will take a step back next season. It is incredible, but here is an amazing fact. Right now they do not have single WR under contract that caught a single pass all last year. This will be a complete makeover from scratch at WR for Tom Brady. But he's Tom Brady, so he will adjust, just like he has always done in the past. They will not score the 500+ points they have scored the last couple of years (but much is still unknown at this point, and things may change a lot by the fall). That is not necessarily a bad thing if at the same time the offense takes a step back, the defense takes a step forward. Should be interesting.

Robert Kraft speaks on the failure to sign Wes Welker:

PHOENIX -- [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] owner Robert Kraft was unusually revealing Monday in lamenting receiver [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]'s defection to the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], saying the team wanted the receiver back and placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of Welker's agents.

“

Everyone in our organization wanted Wes Welker back. Anyone who doubts that, or thinks we weren't serious, just doesn't get it.


”
-- Robert Kraft

"We usually don't talk about contracts, but I'd like to clear up what
I think is some misconceptions about the Wes situation," Kraft told
reporters at the NFL annual meeting. "Everyone in our organization
wanted Wes Welker back. Anyone who doubts that, or thinks we weren't
serious, just doesn't get it. I've owned the team 19 years and I've
known in the end we have to have certain limits and restraints. Like
I've said many times, I really wanted Wes to be with us through the rest
of his career, but it takes two sides to do a deal. ...

"In Wes' case, we were willing to go what we considered above his
market value. For a couple years, we tried to get a long-term deal done
with him. We couldn't do a deal and we wound up franchising him [in
2012] at a very high number [$9.5 million]. In retrospect, I wish we
could have wrapped that into an arrangement where it was part of a
longer-term deal.

"But I really believe in this case, his agents misrepresented, in
their mind, what his market value was. 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."




Kraft added that he was "really sad" to see Welker sign with the Broncos and said the team only signed free-agent receiver [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] as a "second alternative."

"Wednesday, I personally got a call from Wes and he told me about
this offer from Denver," Kraft said. "He called Bill [Belichick] as
well. We met and we chatted. We have a lot of people, we've committed a
lot of money to this inside position -- you have [[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]], you have [Aaron] Hernandez, you have Danny [Amendola] now -- it was just unfortunately a little bit too late.

"If he had called one day earlier, he would have been with us. And so
that, is the Wes Welker story. I'm very sad about it and I wish he
would have been with our team."

The Patriots' owner
wouldn't get into specifics on the Patriots' offer to Welker, but said
there was a "substantial gap" between what the Patriots offered and what
the receiver's agents were seeking.

"If he had come to us
and said 'the gap was $2 million' -- which on the surface everyone
believes that's what it is -- that would have been closed in a second,"
Kraft said. "[Welker's agents] care about getting the best financial
deal for their client they can get. I understand that. Their
compensation is based on that and they want to attract other clients. In
the end, our job is to look out to put the New England Patriots in the
best position to win continuously. And I think in the last 19 years, I'm
pretty proud that we have the best won-loss record of any team in the
NFL. In 19 years, we've gone to six Super Bowls. I think our modus
operandi has been OK. On the other hand, I think this is a situation
that we really wanted to happen with Wes and it's very unfortunate."

Kraft
was asked whether he spoke with quarterback Tom Brady, who restructured
his deal and took less than market value on an extension because he
wanted the Patriots to surround him with great players. Welker was
Brady's favorite target and close friend.

"I don't answer
to Tom Brady," Kraft said. "He's an important member of the team and
we've chatted. He did what he did to put us in the best position to
build a team around him and win games. We've chatted about it. But he
has never ... it has been reported that he, or people close to him, have
made certain comments. None of that is true. I've spoken with him
directly. Whomever is creating that impression is mistaken."

Kraft added that Brady did not demand the team re-sign Welker when he restructured his contract.

"He
never put a demand or expected anything when he did what he did," Kraft
said. "He never put quid pro quos, and to be honest, we wouldn't have
accepted them had he done that. He did what he thought ... and what he
did was tremendous. It's given our team a real competitive advantage to
be in a position to win. And now it's how well our personnel people make
the decisions."

"I don't answer to Tom Brady." -- Robert Kraft

Hey George, I'm pretty sure Bill Belichick would say the same thing, or at least act consistent with Kraft's sentiment. Don't you find it ironic and kind of funny that Kraft (speaking on behalf of management, which includes Belichick) came out with that quote only days after you posted your silly statement: "if Tom Brady lit Bill Belichick's cat on fire, he would thank him." (implying that BB kisses TB's ass).

Don't you find the contridiction between Kraft's statement and yours pretty funny?
I do. LOL.

guppy wrote:
"I don't answer to Tom Brady." -- Robert Kraft

Hey George, I'm pretty sure Bill Belichick would say the same thing, or at least act consistent with Kraft's sentiment. Don't you find it ironic and kind of funny that Kraft (speaking on behalf of management, which includes Belichick) came out with that quote only days after you posted your silly statement: "if Tom Brady lit Bill Belichick's cat on fire, he would thank him." (implying that BB kisses TB's ass).

Don't you find the contridiction between Kraft's statement and yours pretty funny?
I do. LOL.

I think Krafts "statement" is the most ridiculous, self serving load of shit I've heard since the democratic convention. It takes a special kind of bullshit artist to contradict himself twice in the same sentence.
Being "pretty sure" about what little Bill might say sounds dangerously close to an opinion, and if I'm not allowed to express one, neither are you.

George1963 wrote:

guppy wrote:
"I don't answer to Tom Brady." -- Robert Kraft

Hey George, I'm pretty sure Bill Belichick would say the same thing, or at least act consistent with Kraft's sentiment. Don't you find it ironic and kind of funny that Kraft (speaking on behalf of management, which includes Belichick) came out with that quote only days after you posted your silly statement: "if Tom Brady lit Bill Belichick's cat on fire, he would thank him." (implying that BB kisses TB's ass).

Don't you find the contridiction between Kraft's statement and yours pretty funny?
I do. LOL.

I think Krafts "statement" is the most ridiculous, self serving load of shit I've heard since the democratic convention. It takes a special kind of bullshit artist to contradict himself twice in the same sentence.
Being "pretty sure" about what little Bill might say sounds dangerously close to an opinion, and if I'm not allowed to express one, neither are you.

George, give it up. The degree to which you stretch and reach in order to display your Pats hate is boardering on comical. At least save the desperation for in-season bullshit when you can rant on endlessly about all things New England, right down to the parking lot attendants. Never said you weren't allowed to express an opinion. You keep expressing them, and I'll keep attacking them. Oh, now you want to take us down the political road? Give us a hint, who is your political hero? Newt Gingrich, or that Republican senator that did a complete 180 degree turn on gay marriage, but only because his own son came to him and said, "Dad, I'm gay."? But whatever; its all OK. You're entitled.

George, give it up. The degree to which you stretch and reach in order to display your Pats hate is boardering on comical.

I don't have to stretch and reach. Just use Krafts words. You know that Welkers agent came out the next day and disputed just about every word of Krafts rambling, right?
Now you can choose to believe whatever you want, this is America after all, but keep in mind that if you believe Krafts version of events you believe that Welker did something he's consistently said he didn't want to do from early 2011 right up until his introductory press conference in Denver for, according to Kraft, four, no sorry, ten million dollars less.
Good luck with that.

Give us a hint, who is your political hero?
Newt Gingrich, or that Republican senator that did a complete 180
degree turn on gay marriage,
Like the President did?

but only because his own son came to him and said, "Dad, I'm gay."?
Yea, I know. Changing your personal views based on personal experience isn't as intellectually honest as changing them based on opinion polls.
Like the President did.
Twice.
But everybody's different.

Hey, does a black, conservative immigrant run completely counter to everything you've been taught about the world?


Give us a hint, who is your political hero?

I don't have heros, but Nikki Haley, the governor of my new home state, is going places.

Hey, does a black, conservative immigrant run completely counter to everything you've been taught about the world?



Not really. Its not so much what I've been taught, as it is what I have experienced. In school many years ago I lived in the same dormatory as a certain black conservative who happens to now sit on the U. S. Supreme Court, and I got to know him a bit.

"guppy"]I'm not sure what's worse. Being broke and that's all you've ever known all your life. Or, being broke in the present after having money in the past, and now having to adjust to the downgrade in your standard of living?
A lot to be said for both scenarios. Using "broke" in a relative sense, if you have covered basic needs, and it's all you know, and aspire for more, yet unattainable; is not fun nor promising.
Having "it" and now re-adjusting to less isn't fun either.

A lot to be said for both is worth repeating.