As for stiller saying the steelers have 13mil in cap room, wrong. It’s not even a third of that. The steelers have rarely signed big-ticket FAs, but now they’re having to let some of their home grown, up and coming players like Lewis and possibly both Wallace and Sanders go because they can’t afford them. It’s not just about the cap room this yr, if they sign someone they have to worry about how much they’ve borrowed from future caps. By the way, at this point you don’t have to worry about the rookie pool or emergencies on the cap. It’s the top 52 players. There will still be 51 players on opening day. wrenches saying Kraft can’t afford Sanders? Pats still have 15mil under the cap. It’s the steelers that can’t afford him. Everyone’s waiting for Long to set the market, but their are a million OT out there, and the Pats like MCannon even if they can’t get Vollmer or somone else on the cheap.

There is no rush for the Pats to sign Sanders to an offer sheet. He could refuse the offer. Or, the Pats could wait until the steelers spend a little more money, making it even harder to match. Sanders would be smart to sign an offer sheet this yr, next yr there is a glut of better WR that wil hit the market(like VCruz).

In the past 2 1/2 seasons, by my count, New England has sent the following receivers packing: Randy Moss, Chad Ochocinco, Brandon Tate, Danny Woodhead, Wes Welker, Brandon Lloyd, Donte Stallworth, Deion Branch. There may be more, but those are the ones I recall.”

Yes, it was the Pats who cost them millions, not in most cases their poor play.

Moss – became very ineffective and very uncooperative opening his mouth to the press repeatedly. The fact that the Vikes who took him and cut him after 4 weeks, and the Titans who then took him barely used him ought to tell you the Pats made the correct decision.

Ochostinko – Ineffective because he was either too lazy or too stupid to learn the playbook. By 2/3 of the way through the season Brady and the other offensive players got tired of telling him where to line up almost every play he was out there, as he constantly lined up in the wrong place.

Tate – Ineffective for 2 years and had drops

Woodhead – great player, but after losing the last 2 Super Bowl’s and this year’s AFCC I think Belichick decided he needed to change the offense. Woodhead has already caught on with San Diego so I don’t see where he’s lost millions.

Welker – Made 9.5 mil last year after several previous seasons making lesser millions. He was an undrafted FA that the Fins didn’t want to even match the Pats offer for. No other team wanted him. He made a fortune playing for New England. His contact was up and he’s making more for Denver than the Pats would pay him. How did he lose anything ?

Lloyd – Played very poorly the first half of last year but I thought did change his attitude and put out a lot more effort in the 2nd half of the season. Didn’t do anything that special to stand out and paid the price.

Stallworth – Brought back by the Pats he sustained a season ending injury the first game he was on the field. Believe his contract was for 1 year and he got paid in full after going to injured reserve. The Pats let him make money when no other team would take him. The Pats cost him nothing.

Branch – Nowhere near as fast as he was in his prime with New England, this was another receiver no one else wanted him after Seattle cut him, so again New England allowed him to make a lot of money he would not have otherwise.

Your entire theory of New England costing receivers money is wrong. Period.

out of the 7 wrs you put on your list 3 of them were on the patriots long term, Branch-7, Moss-4. Welker-6, and the two who were on the team for only 1 year have chronic problems sticking to a team. Stallworth and Lloyd have been on a combined 12 teams in the last 8 years.

Also Sanders is scheduled to make 1 million dollars this season, so if the pats give him 5 million and cut him he’s in the same place he would be anyways only 4 million dollars richer.

1) They really like E Sanders and see him as a 90%+ “bet” to fit in their system and play very well.

2) They might be trading Ryan Mallet to a team like Cleveland or Tampa Bay for picks to free up a little bit on cap and recoup some picks in this year’s and next year’s draft (say a 3rd and 5th this year with a conditional 3rd that could become a 2nd or 1st if Mallett plays most of snaps as starter and is legit good). The Cleveland pick in the 3rd is pretty high in the 3rd round while the Pats pick 29th I believe in the 3rd so the pick they would be sending the Steelers is almost a 4th.

3) If they do #2 above, then they would need to find a solid veteran back-up for Brady. Someone who could run their short passing oriented attack in a pinch and has some upside with very good coaching – also someone who understands his role and would come cheap but with some $ upside in the contract if he has to start. Maybe someone like Ryan Fitzpatrick.

4) Readyforsomefootball makes a great point on the Pats cap space and what they have left to do, but I have them more in the $14-17M range as the Lloyd cut freeed up almost $5M. This makes me think we might see a few more mildly suprising cuts from Pats (e.g., Gostowski’s cap hit is getting pretty big for a slightly above average kicker) to create flexibilty to add a few more players.

1. Brandon Lloyd – cut – after 74, 911, 4TDs in his only season. His contract was for 3 years, $15.5 million
2. Chad Ochocinco – cut – after one year on a 3 year, $6.35 million contract
3. Brandon Tate – cut – after two years on a 4 year contract. Underutilized, and poorly developed as a receiver under BB and Brady
4. Wes Welker – Patriots screwed him around for 2 full seasons, refusing to make a legit offer on a long-term contract. Lost many millions by having to settle this year for 2 years, $12 million from Denver
5. Randy Moss – “did not feel wanted” in New England absent a contract extension offer (similar to Welker). Pats couldn’t handle the locker room disruption, and traded him
6. Deion Branch – after returning to New England, he was allowed to go into free agency, re-signed, cut, re-signed, waived, re-signed, and allowed to lapse into free agency. All in the space of 2 seasons.
7. Danny Woodhead – signed a 3 year contract, performed well at WR, moved to running back, underutilized, and then allowed to leave to the Chargers in free agency
8. Stallworth – 6 year deal, cut after one season. Re-signed last year, cut in training camp, re-signed in December, allowed to leave in free agency. Almost no attempt by BB and Brady during his two stints with the team to develop him as an effective deep threat.

Talent at WR is no longer effectively developed in New England, because BB is in love with his 2 tight-end offensive sets (even though both of his tight ends are rarely healthy at the same time). No deep threats have been developed to any degree under BB and Brady since Moss. The WR position has been reduced to a revolving door.

The Pats may prefer to hang onto the pick and see what McDaniels sees in the draft rather than picking up Sanders. If they can draft a WR or 2, it will cost them a lot less than it will to sign Sanders away from Pittsburgh

first commentator you couldn’t be more wrong. First of he were to sign with the patriots they only get him by giving him a ton of money in the first year so the Steelers can’t match. Second Woodhead was a free agent running back not a cut wide receiver. branch is a 74 (football years) wr, ocho was terrible, Lloyd under performed. your entire statement is based on trading a quickly slowing Moss and not resigning a very good and tough aging Wes Welker. I love welks and moss, I actually liked Lloyd a lot, but you sir sound like an illinformed fool.

I was going to post the same thing. Thanks for saving my time.

Why do people always have to exaggerate and stretch the truth to make their point? (rhetorical question)

In the past 2 1/2 seasons, by my count, New England has sent the following receivers packing: Randy Moss, Chad Ochocinco, Brandon Tate, Danny Woodhead, Wes Welker, Brandon Lloyd, Donte Stallworth, Deion Branch. There may be more, but those are the ones I recall.

The chances are very high for Sanders of getting signed and dumped within a year (like Lloyd and Ochocinco) before making anything but a fraction of the contract money from the Patriots.

________________________________

Brandon Tate couldn’t grasp the offense (what’s he doing now??)
Randy, Chad, Donte, Deion – How old are they?
Woodhead-got a better contract offer
Welker was offered 16m last year fully guaranteed, he chose to walk.

Donte was injured after his 1 TD last year. Otherwise, with that speed and catch he’d probably still be on the team. Ocho just quite obviously didn’t have the mental skills to make it on the pats. Branch could easily be back as filler, the last time Branch signed a lucrative contract with the pats, he played 4 years there.

Plus, your point is moot because to get Sanders to begin with the Pats would need to front load a deal so yes, that would be good for Sanders.

Moss ran himself out of town because he was greedy and not a team player (getting cut from his next three teams as well and costing coaches their jobs)

Chad Johnson was certainly a bust – but even he got $6 million plus. Why would Sanders be bothered by players profiting?

If they decide not to match, it will likely be because they dont believe he is a long term quality every down WR, not because they cant pay him. He’s been a #3 in his career to date, averaging about 30 catches a season, if someones gonna pay him 6+ million without even seeing what he does as a #2, i say go get the money, sanders.

Not with the quarterback who played so horribly that he could not get a win when the Steelers defense held the Bengals to only SIX POINTS. Seriously.

In the past 2 1/2 seasons, by my count, New England has sent the following receivers packing: Randy Moss, Chad Ochocinco, Brandon Tate, Danny Woodhead, Wes Welker, Brandon Lloyd, Donte Stallworth, Deion Branch. There may be more, but those are the ones I recall.

The chances are very high for Sanders of getting signed and dumped within a year (like Lloyd and Ochocinco) before making anything but a fraction of the contract money from the Patriots.