As big a deal as the Patriots made last night, they might be on the verge of having a bigger hole.
According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, Wilfork has asked the team for his release, after 10 seasons.
The team approached him once about restructuring his contract, but that didn’t go far. He’s scheduled to make a base salary of $7.5 million this year, and count $11.6 million against the salary cap.
That is a number they don’t want to pay for a 31-year-old coming off an Achilles injury.
How they handle this one will be interesting, because they need that number off the books, but they’d also blow a huge hole (pun absolutely intended) in the middle of their defense by letting him go.