Patriots did Amendola deal before Welker signed with Broncos

Posted by Darin Gantt on March 14, 2013, 2:09 PM EDT
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Signing Danny Amendola appeared to be a reflex move by the Patriots, after Wes Welker bolted for the Broncos.

But according to Tom Curran of Comcast Sportsnet, the Patriots actually made their move first, agreeing to terms with Amendola Tuesday, a day before Welker agreed to his Denver deal.

The Welker news came first, creating the impression of a counter-move.

But once Welker turned down their offer and tested the market when it opened Tuesday, the Patriots went ahead with the Rams free agent.

While this news changes the narrative, it doesn’t change the basic facts in the case — the Pats made Welker an offer, he didn’t like it, so both sides moved on.

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61 responses to “Patriots did Amendola deal before Welker signed with Broncos”

  1. The business side of this game is ugly. Everybody trying to make the other side look bad. Wes wore it first, now its the Patriots turn. The off season certainly is entertaining.

  2. So did the Patriots do Welker a favor and wait to announce the Amendola signing? I find it hard to believe Belichick would be doing any player on the way out any favors.

  5. That is hard to swallow Welker gets 6 mil and Amendola gets 6.1M?! Just doesn’t sound right.

  7. Something tells me the Pats have something up their sleeve. Don’t know what but they never get caught with their pants down like they did with the Welker non-deal. Still a chance for Victor Cruz maybe?

  8. I personally don’t care who signed first,as a die hard broncos fan I’m more excited about the Broncos Patriots rivalry,this just intensifies it more,the broncos improved and the patriots are gonna still average 30 points a game a smell Broncos vs.Pats AFC Championship Game!!!

    #BroncoNation

  10. What a punch in the stomach.

    What’s going on with Tebow? (… just asking…)

  12. well they couldn’t sit around, waiting to hear from Welker.

    they’d be screwed if they waited on him and he signed elsewhere anyways. they did what they needed to do to build a team.

    still think they should have offered welker a bit more. but the pats didn’t really have any other option once wes decided to test free agency. it was look at other guys or possibly end up with nobody/overpaying out of desperation

  13. That is hard to swallow Welker gets 6 mil and Amendola gets 6.1M?! Just doesn’t sound right.
    ——————-
    Welker gets 12 mil guaranteed over 2 years while Danny gets 10 over 5.

  16. charleythedinosaur says: Mar 14, 2013 2:18 PM

    Something tells me the Pats have something up their sleeve. Don’t know what but they never get caught with their pants down like they did with the Welker non-deal. Still a chance for Victor Cruz maybe?

    ———–

    I’m convinced that they’re looking to spend most money on defense. just pick up a few cheap wrs and look to the draft

    no chance they’ll give a first round pick and big money for cruz.

  17. Um, it was pretty obvious that this deal was worked out ahead of time and not a reflex action….but thanks for the reading material anyway. Next you can have a story about how the Pats really didn’t want Welker and were kind of hoping he would leave so they could sign what they think was a younger version.

  18. Patriots Owner Krafty Bob is at it again lying that he wanted welker as a patriot for life. Logan mankins called Kraft a liar in 2010 for reneging on a promise about a new contract. Belichick and Krafty Bob are the 2 biggest liars and snakes around.

  20. I personally don’t care who signed first,as a die hard broncos fan I’m more excited about the Broncos Patriots rivalry,this just intensifies it more,the broncos improved and the patriots are gonna still average 30 points a game a smell Broncos vs.Pats AFC Championship Game!!!

    —-

    As long as Denver doesn’t get home field advantage, and they are playing the first two rounds in a dome, this might happen.

  21. What the Patriots did to Wes Welker, one of the greatest receivers in pro football, was an insult and a disgrace. I hope Welker makes them pay for it when the Broncos play the Patriots this year.

  22. johnnyhambone says: Mar 14, 2013 2:27 PM

    Patriots Owner Krafty Bob is at it again lying that he wanted welker as a patriot for life. Logan mankins called Kraft a liar in 2010 for reneging on a promise about a new contract. Belichick and Krafty Bob are the 2 biggest liars and snakes around.
    —-

    And then Logan signed with the Patriots. You left that part out.

  23. chiwizlive says:
    Mar 14, 2013 2:19 PM
    I personally don’t care who signed first,as a die hard broncos fan I’m more excited about the Broncos Patriots rivalry,this just intensifies it more,the broncos improved and the patriots are gonna still average 30 points a game a smell Broncos vs.Pats AFC Championship Game!!!

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
    Patriot fan here. I agree with you about the intensified rivalry. Maybe a bit early to predict the AFC Championship game….but that would be great. I wonder when they will have the Broncs at New England? The Welker signing has to make it a prime time game….don’t you think?

  24. During the season no Pats fan would ever have said Amendola was better than Welker… Now they can’t stop gushing about the “brilliant” move by their team … Such phonies.

  26. I don’t get all of the love for Danny.

    1) He is an injury risk: He has only played in 42/64 games in his career and only 12 of the last 32.

    2) If he is explosive/elusive, he hasn’t shown it yet: Has a career 8.8 avg and doesn’t have a bunch of long TDs…only two career plays over 40 yds.

    3) He loses a fumble every ~65 catches, 3/196.

    Wes does much better…

    1) He is reliable: Played in 139 / 142 games.

    2) He is more explosive/elusive: Career avg of 11.2 which is better than Danny’s best season.

    3) Doesn’t lose fumbles….only on per 382 catches….2/765.

    Yup, Danny is younger and larger, but I don’t see how or why this should excite Patriots fans.

    Now they have 3 injury prone targets for Brady.

  27. They have failed the sniff test. It’s obvious they were bitter at Welker due to the fact they had to use their franchise tag on him last year and pay him over 9 million. Amendola will give the Pats no more than 2 solid games, and the rest will be him nursing injuries on the sideline.

  28. blah….blah….blah! Patriots NEVER do anything for anyone that does not benefit the Patriots. I trust nothing they say. They have proven themselves untrustworthy…..repeatedly.

  29. Both teams ended up with an upgrade. And for anyone surprised that the Patriots weren’t media friendly and instead tight lipped… Why?

  30. I’m calling BS on this one. The Pats aren’t exactly shining models of truth-telling, and I think this is an attempted face-saving lie.

  31. All this proves is that they wanted Amendola more. It doesn’t mean it’s a good move and it isn’t. Welker is a better player than Amendola and will be so for the next two years. Is this really debatable? As a Patriots fan, how can I possibly think that my team is better off with Amendola than with Welker. They better sing Julian Edelman. They’ll need him as soon as Amendola lands on IR.

  32. This is not a shock. I think Amendola’s connection to McDaniels from his days in StL came in to play here. I think he was their guy all along but the Pats wanted to look like they trade to keep Welker to save face with their fan base and Brady. Now, it is out in the public and makes the Pats look bad.
    I’d be pissed if I were Brady too.

  33. narfmoo12 says: Mar 14, 2013 2:38 PM

    During the season no Pats fan would ever have said Amendola was better than Welker… Now they can’t stop gushing about the “brilliant” move by their team … Such phonies.
    —-

    Really can you show us 1 post that says it’s a “brilliant” move?

  34. @gatorprof you have to remember Amendola hasn’t had a QB anywhere remote close to the talent level of Brady. If Danny had a top caliber QB his numbers would be improved.

  35. You have to look at this with several things in mind. First, the Pats offered Welker a fair market value contract (slot receivers dont get paid). You cant argue that he walked away for “only $1 million more” and also argue that the Pats didnt offer market value. Second, the Pats offer contained incentives that could have pushed the contract from 2/$10mil to 2/$16mil. Welker simply decided he couldnt reach those incentives and turned down the deal.

    Now that free agency started, and Welker turned down their fair deal, they had a decision to make. They could A) over pay Welker, B) wait for Welker to make a decision, or C) start courting a replacement. The Pats simply decided that if they didnt move on Amendola they could potentially lose out on both players.

    Welker and his people did their job, they played their hand in order to get him the best deal. And they got a better deal (not counting the incentives). The Pats front office played their hand, and they also got what they wanted. Seems like a win for both sides, unless Welker was bluffing and the Pats called his bluff…

    But it does seem a bit foolish now, to hear Welker’s agent talking about the Pats offer wasnt even close, and it was a slap in the face, blah blah blah. The Pats offer was very competitive, they just werent going to sit around and wait for Welker to maybe come back…

  37. Have we gone back to high and continued the debate about whom broke up with who first? Typical Patriot response though; a day late and 2 Million short!

  39. gatorprof says:
    Mar 14, 2013 2:40 PM
    I don’t get all of the love for Danny.

    1) He is an injury risk: He has only played in 42/64 games in his career and only 12 of the last 32.

    2) If he is explosive/elusive, he hasn’t shown it yet: Has a career 8.8 avg and doesn’t have a bunch of long TDs…only two career plays over 40 yds.

    3) He loses a fumble every ~65 catches, 3/196.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
    We will see how well he does now that he has Brady throwing to him….remember some of the names Brady made look good in the past? As for injuries, well that is a concern, but I don’t know the nature of the injuires.

  40. jimmyt says:
    Mar 14, 2013 2:53 PM
    The Patriots are trending down….and I like it.

    Been hearing that for ten years. Maybe I’ll pay attention to it after Bill B retires.

  41. Baloney. This is like a team that sees the guy they want in the draft taken right before them, picks someone, and says, “We liked A, but we got B, who’s the guy we REALLY wanted.”

    It’s the football version of a few years back, when the Red Sox won the rights to Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Yankees, who thought they had the usual Yankee divine right to any player they deigned to sign, then signed Kei Igawa (that worked out well, didn’t it?) and made noises as if Igawa was their first choice.

  42. narfmoo12 said “Now they can’t stop gushing about the “brilliant” move by their team … Such phonies.”
    ~~~~~~~~
    Been listening to sports radio and reading online for two days. Ninety-nine of 100 comments are tearing Belichick and Kraft apart. Where are you getting your information?

  43. Brady is signed up for the next 5. Amendola for 5.

    Brady today is not as good as Brady last year – his best years are behind him and replacing a proven winner – Welker – with an injury prone Amendola is stupid. 2 years from now this will look even more like the rotten deal it is today. The pats’ glory days are over. With Brady they will still win a lot of games but their glory days are over.
    They have a history of getting rid of good people before they can get good money – Richard Seymour comes to mind. The fact that Welker left as fast as he did shows me that he was just flat out disgusted by the way the pats had treated him. Kraft’s “I love Wes Welker” b.s. is just that – b.s.

    I am reminded of the incident a few years ago when Welker said something funny about the jet coach’s foot fetish and Belichik kept him off the field for the 1st series in the pats’ next game. Petty, just plain petty.

    Welker is a class act and the team will miss him.

    FYI – I am a pats’ fan.

  44. jimmyt says:
    Mar 14, 2013 2:53 PM
    The Patriots are trending down….and I like it.

    ——

    oh yeah. Super Bowl and then afc championship. I forgot winning every year means you’re trending down.

  45. jnbnet says:

    Mar 14, 2013 2:40 PM

    We will see how well he does now that he has Brady throwing to him….remember some of the names Brady made look good in the past?

    ——-

    Yeah, like Wes Welker?

  46. Welker caught everything in sight in the regular season, but look at his playoff stats. 5 years with the Pats and only caught 4 playoff td’s. Not to mention the two big drops that probably cost us 2 SB. Welker has hit the wall. He will be good this year but then the inevitable slide will happen as it does to all tiny slot receivers who make the middle of the field their home and eventually pay for it. Billy is a master of knowing when that happens to a player. Bledsoe, Milloy, Adalius, Seymore. He wasn’t wrong with any of them.

    Good move Bill.

  47. This will be the best thing to happen to the Patriots TEAM in a long time. Force brady out of his comfort zone. He threw to Wes too much.

    And Wes didn’t appreciate what the Patriots did for him. He was on his way out of the NFL when the Patriots brought him in and made him great. How many Pats fans were excited when they picked up Wes?? How many knew his name!

  48. blah….blah….blah! Patriots NEVER do anything for anyone that does not benefit the Patriots. I trust nothing they say. They have proven themselves untrustworthy…..repeatedly.
    ——————-
    Yes, I hate hate how the Patriots do what is in the best interest of the team….I want them to start doing things to benefits other teams….

  49. The Patriot way! No loyalty to anyone for any reason if it doesn’t benefit the team. You paying attention, Tommy?

  50. Welker is a system guy — if not for Brady he is no better than 25 other NFL receivers.

    Amendola is now the new Brady system guy — his NFL star is rising fast

    Not to mention he is 5 years younger, so Patriots did the smart thing. Dump the old 31 yr old system guy for the younger 26 yr old system guy.

    Both guys are avergae at best if not for Brady.

    Why is this so hard to believe?

  51. Your honor, I’d like to introduce 45 new pieces of evidence that will clearly reveal how cynical, paranoid and brain-dead this country has become.

  52. Im sure the Patriots organized and executed a 5 years 61 million contract in 2 hours….come on peeps, seems for some reason they wanted Danny instead… I will say I have thought moves the Pats made in the past were dumb in some prove to be but it seems like they know what they are doing. One more thing please stop with the….Danny will do fine and so will Welker they are both good players.

    Team(A) is awful now and can’t do anything right…and get this IM A TEAM “A” FAN!!! AHHHH

    M.Night Shyamalan

  53. So who exactly will Brady throw to once Amendola and Gronk make their annual trip to IR?

  54. Who said pats fans are gushing about amendola. I’m certainly not. Great move for the broncos. I wanted Wes back. They got this one wrong. Everyone up here in New England is pissed and ripping management. So you can forget that gushing crap and phony stuff. They lost welker and got a poor man’s Wes welker. This sucks!

  55. As a Broncos fan, I’d much rather discuss this than anything related to that left handed QB we used to have….what was his name??

  56. charleythedinosaur says:
    Mar 14, 2013 2:18 PM
    Something tells me the Pats have something up their sleeve. Don’t know what but they never get caught with their pants down like they did with the Welker non-deal. Still a chance for Victor Cruz maybe?
    ___________________________
    I’m a Pats fan and they were caught with their pants down with the Branch situation in 06…no doubt about it. They misplayed that one badly.
    If Deion wasn’t such a sweet person it could have been worse.

    If they had the Amendola deal done before WW refused them, perhaps that means they learned from what happened with Branch.

    Believe me, TB definitely knows that when his time comes, he’ll be gone too. Sure he will be handled like BB handled all the other guys he respected like Bruschi, et al, but nevertheless, he is a commodity also. I think he is wise enough to go gracefully like Bru etc did.

  57. All the “Welker is a product of Brady” trolls as truly, truly amazing in the extent of their ignorance

    So Welker having 100+ receptions with Cassel and 67 receptions as a part time receiver with Cleo Lemon / Joey Harrington on an offensively challenged Dolphins team that didn’t know what they had in him was all Brady right?

    In fact, Welker was such a nobody without Brady that the Pats gambled a 2nd round draft pick to trade him from the Dolphins when he was an unknown quantity

    CHILD PLEASE

  58. For the sake of all the Pats fans out there, I’m hoping the St. Louis connection was just happenstance. Because if Josh McDaniels has enough pull in N.E. to start picking personnel, the fall will be rapid and unstoppable.

  59. @ blue18

    Most Pats fans know WW is a great talent all on his own. He killed the Pats when he was in Mia and that’s why BB wanted him. You may be a bitter Manning fan making that point so you can bolster PM over TB but you do have that one right. 🙂

    @ mogogo

    This is one Pats fan who never ever wants McDaniels near the draft room. His greatest personnel pushes in his prior tenure were Laurence Maroney and Chad Jackson…ugh.
    Then he brings in a WR who he knew had a strange personality that doesn’t fit in the lockerroom. Nice going, Josh.

  60. Believe nothing from Curran about the Pats. He carries the water for the Pats like you can’t imagine. If they told him to report that the sky is green, he would do it.

  61. lbroberts123,

    Two comments of rebuttal…

    First, Danny would need to stay healthy to put up numbers. He missed 20 of his last 32 games and has NEVER put up big numbers.

    Secondly, only a few QBs in the league compare to Brady. Givens and Gibson had no problems putting up nice numbers with large averages from Bradford. They all had less catches, but more yards, more 20+ yd plays, and zero fumbles between them.

    Simply put, Danny is a risk, but has more upside due to youth. Wes is a sure thing for at least 2 years.

    How many years does Brady have left? They should have kept Wes. Bill let it get personal.

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