I think the Patriots offered WW two years at $5m per season (with potential to make more, though WW didn't think that he would be able to achieve the incentives) and he signed with the Broncos for two years at $6m per season so I don't think they offered more guaranteed money. The Patriots then turn around and pay Amendola $6m per and a longer contract. Yes, I know he is younger.
What I was saying was based off reports on Kraft's statements at the owners' meeting a few days after the Welker signing. Maybe Kraft got his facts wrong,
as suggested in the Denver Post:
PHOENIX — Four days after Wes Welker was introduced as the newest Broncos wide receiver, Patriots owner Robert Kraft went on the offensive at the NFL meetings.
Kraft said Monday that Welker's agent, David Dunn, "overvalued" Welker on the open market and said he believed Welker was offered a better deal to stay with the Patriots. According to Kraft, the Patriots offered Welker a two-year contract worth $10 million plus incentives.
Welker's deal with the Broncos is a two-year contract worth $12 million. It includes a $4 million signing bonus and a $2 million base salary for this season. Next year, Welker will have a $3 million base salary and a $3 million bonus.
Kraft said the Broncos' deal was essentially a one-year affair, something the Broncos' decision makers dispute, and Kraft said the Patriots' last offer to Welker would have given $8 million in salary and bonuses to Welker this season.
"We just couldn't give Wes what he wanted," Kraft said. "We, in fact, offered him a better deal."
To me, that looks like the Broncos gave $6MM guaranteed to Welker. I don't know the structure of the Patriots offer, but if it were $2MM a year with a $6MM bonus, then it would have more guaranteed.
In SI, Kraft said, "In fact, he has a one-year deal in Denver for $6 million. Our last offer.....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.''
Read More:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20130318/patriots-kraft-blames-welker-agent-contract-broncos/#ixzz2ex2GZH7Q "
Kraft also talks about how the incentives in the Pats offer brought their offer up to a possible $16MM, but SI points out he tried to argue the incentives should count as part of the Pats offer and not as part of the Broncos. To me, that does not seem right. Seems the basic point here was the guarantee was more under the Pats than the Broncos, that next year's contract with the broncos was questionable at the time due to the cap hit, and if you were going to count the questionable portion of the Broncos offer because he would clearly be worth that cap hit, then you ought to count the incentives under the Pats offer, which would top the Broncos maximum ($12MM over 2).
The $6MM to Amendola is less than the $8MM guaranteed offer to Welker.
They have also repeatedly not signed their own guys to lengthy big time contracts and often place the franchise tag on players instead of letting them get paid properly on the open market. I have no problem with the way they do business, but they have always pinched pennies when it comes to salaries of their players. Didn't they just add three years to his contract at an astonishingly low $9m per year after Flaccid got paid like $20m? All in the name of allowing the team to be competitive.
You are right they have let guys walk or traded them due to cap considerations. IMO, the defense has never been the same since Richard Seymour, Willie McGinest, and Mike Vrabel were traded or allowed to walk, and that they have not had a quality cornerback who is a good citizen since Asante Samuel. McGinest maybe should have been allowed to walk, but the Vrabel move was "you can have Cassel for a 2d if you take Vrabel, too." They lost a lot of toughness and spent several years without an effective pass rusher / run stopper around Wilfork.
As for the Brady deal, Brady is low earner in his family. He has renegotiated several times to lower his cap hit. This was a mutual accommodation. Brady gets his contract out to age 40, and the Pats get a number they can live with. Brady never has said he had to be higher paid than Peyton, who is the only bench mark he compares himself to (not Brees, and certainly not Flaccid).
