Because we have no realistic shot at a SB this year, Dungver does

If only he can stop fumbling.

You can't build an entire team with Free Agency. You can, however, put a team over the top with it.

Peyton Manning makes everyone around him look better ... I don't expect a drop off with Welker if he signs there.

Thomas, Decker, and Welker ... rough!

True ... you consistently build good teams via the draft and you fill holes in FA. Few teams successfully do well at the draft which is why FA is so crazy every year.

Exactly...And that's the difference between Denver and Kansas City.

Denver: Get players that are going to put us over the top.

Kansas City: Fill needs so that they can draft the best players available in the draft.

He was very young and slightly built last year. I'm looking forward to him putting on some weight and developing core strength. He's a playmaker.

Not only are we ****ed.....the rest of the AFC West is ****ed.

Go look at the CB depth in SD and OAK.

Denver might be the only place he still sees good production.

Personally, I think Tavon is an adequate replacement for Welker.

I don't know... I could see him doing well in BAL, DAL, NYG ... PIT.

Manning will know how to use him, and please don't take this the wrong way, but Welker fits Manning's armstrength a little better.

You're never going to stay ahead in this league by overpaying your best players in their declining years. Belichick knows this. That's why he'll continue the run of success for another decade.

I still have a feeling this is going to turn out with Wes resigning with NE when it's all said and done. Honestly, if NE loses Welker - I think they're f'ed... what else do they have as a threat outside of the TEs?

I'm a big, huge fan of Welker, but he has seen his drops go up exponentially the last couple years, including in key, key situations.

I want him back, but I understand not giving him Megatron type money. I think his league-wide utility isn't as great as an elite #1 WR, as he needs a highly accurate QB to take advantage of his skill-set, but Manning is definitely a guy who could make use of his skills as well as anybody, so his value to the Broncos is higher than it is to many teams and, of course, it weakens another top AFC contender.

**** you, Denver.

Everybody knows this, too.


We watched KC go down because of an asshat from NE with a huge ego. Maybe Billichick thinks he is smart enough to cover that hole.


I hope he tries.....

Everyone points to the drops and I get it... but, again when you're one of the most targeted in the league, that's something you just accept with the overall production being what it has been. Welker has been extremely critical to NE's success - you don't just replace him with most FA options. Not when their only other legit threats are TEs.

I honestly think NE has better options than Welker, assuming Gronkowski & Hernandez are healthy (Tavon Austin?).

Frankly last year we had two legitimate pass-catching threats -- Wes and whichever TE was healthy in any given week, because Hernandez and Gronk played, I think, precisely one full game together. Assuming they can stay healthy, then losing Wes means we're still at 2.

In all honesty, we need a Z more than we need Welker back. A legitimate, outside the hash marks WR would make this offense go better than another guy who does the middle of the field, because AH and Gronk can cover that area just fine.

Ultimtely, I don't know how much money Welker wants. If he's thinking $10MM per year for four or five years then, yeah, I can't really see paying that.

I'm sure Brady isn't going to be happy to lose him though. Wes is one of his best friends on the team. His work ethic and toughness are also very hard to match.

In the last 2 years - Welker accounts for 29% of the passes caught, 15% of the yards and 20% of the TDs caught from Brady... Tom does more with less, obviously, but those are huge numbers to fill if they let Wes walk.

called it

They are, no doubt, and I'm not gonna hate on him, he's a good player; I guess that I just think that Welker can be more easily replaced than either of their tight ends.

Ultimately, he's replaceable ASSUMING the TEs stay healthy. Edelman can give us 60% or so of Welker, the two TEs being healthy can give us more (they will be targetted more) and having a better Z will help quite a bit also.

You also can't assume that he will be as productive the next two years as he was the last two years. He's the wrong side of 30. At some point, production drops, and usually dramatically. I doubt, knowing Welker, that that happens immediately or anything, but again, if he wants 4-5 years at $10 per, then that's a pretty big problem.

Oh, and I guess I should also say, nice pickup, assuming he signs with Denver. He's WAY better than Stokley.

And I really, really want to emphasize i'm not dumping on Welker. He's been a great, phenomenal player who is fun to watch (other than a few tough drops) and everything you want in a player. I'm NOT trashing him. I DO want him back. But it's not OMFGWECAN'TLOSEHIMNOMATTERWHATORWE'REDEAD!!!!

There's two guys on this team with that mantle -- Brady and Wilfork.

And if you forced me to choose between Welker and Gronk, then I take Gronk.

Welker and Hernandez is about even.

Go to Denver.


I would much rather have a strong AFC West than the pile of garbage it's been for so long.

You want a strong division to compete with. That's really intelligent. Thank you for that.

Ok, so I missed it. Denver did announce a LB signing by 3:20pm cst though... o:-)

Anyway, my guess is that Welker goes back to NE as stated a few times already. I suppose it's good for Denver to play their role in pushing the price upward for Welker, hope it was worth the effort.

Word out of New England puts Denver's offer at $35M over four years. Sounds about right, and we'd figure a guaranteed figure of around $15M-17M to cover the first two years of the deal.

http://www.itsalloverfatman.com/bron...to-sign-welker

Denver is likely better served spending the Welker $ on two solid players for the secondary.

If the Donks truly wanted to **** NE over, they'd draft Austin anyways.

STFU I suppose that's the going rate... for that kind of player in this type of offense, with a QB like Manning. Just not sure that's where I'd invest the $ to be honest.

Coincidentally, that's right around the money they would have saved by cutting Dumervil.

So if Welker goes to Denver does NE grab Jennings and Danny form STL?

Except they agreed to restructure that contract already, and the offer has already been offered to Welker as of right now, likely going to be a 3 year 21-27 million offer.


I can also confirm that not only will we (the chiefs) pickup another CB by the end of this frenzy, but I can give you the list of who they want in order.

1. Sean Smith
2. DRC
3. Talib
4. Nnamdi
5. Cason

They should.



Also, if they really wanted to make their offense resemble 2007, they'd have shelled out money to Mike Wallace.

Last I heard was that Dumervil talks were at an impasse, and I posted a Welker contract rumor in an earlier post. Did you hear a different one?

I don't know the specifics of the offer yet, but I don't think he'll walk away from New England unless the offer was right around 7.5-8 per year or higher, and he's too good to get an offer shorter than 3 years.

I've heard a ton of rumors today, probably ones you haven't, but it'll all be the same.

I think overall Amendola was pegged to fill in for Wes Welker if he moved out, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Pats tossed a tiny contract at Julian Edelman to keep him, Danny doesn't go to the Pats, and signs a new contract with the Rams.

Edit: as for dumervil, it is still in talks but the financing for the most part is done.

Adam Schefter ‏@AdamSchefter

Wes Welker has agreed to terms with Denver Broncos.



Done deal

Cool, and sweet.

Vic Lombardi ‏<s>@</s>VicLombardi Source. "Done"

Yep, 3 year deal, figures not out yet.

The Patriots are going to get bounced in the wild-card round now.

2-year deal for Broncos/welker

Bittersweet.

A big FU to the Pats.

But we are ****ed....

Now being reported as a 2 year deal....hmmm.

Edit: Must have gotten a lot of guaranteed money.

Welker deal is done. I ****ing hate John Elway. I can't wait until his Dick Vermeil veteran strategy blows up in his face. They'll likely get close to a trophy in the next couple of years, but that team is going to be geriatric in 3.

I bet the Broncos win 15 games and sweep the AFC West.

Prepare to get raped, NFL.

2 years

It's the NFL you don't have to rebuild if you are smart. We will see what life after Manning brings, but I can't remember the last time Denver only won 2 games in a season.

Wish the Chiefs would put out the same effort.

I already commented on the change.

Brady should tell the Patriot dipshits he wants to restructure his deal back to the old terms.

LOL I was just typing this...

Adam Schefter ‏@AdamSchefter

Wes Welker lands a two-year, $12 million deal from the Broncos. Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker, Wes Welker. Have fun, Peyton.

Unreal 6m a year for Wes

Freaking awesome signing - especially with that contract!

Are you suggesting they overpaid?

how is an Alex Smith led team going to score enough points against this type of offense?

No that's a great deal

Now for the interesting part of free agency, how we get our Cornerback, and how this deal between the Broncos and Welker affects us.

I'm not going to beat the newly dead horse of "OMG Welker and Manning is going to kills us omg". We've talked about that already, we'll deal with it. What this deal does, though, affects our targets, and once again the Patriots have the ball to deal with, and here's why.

If the Patriots don't sign Danny Amendola, the front runner to replace Wes Welker in the slot, then that means they will sign Julian Edelman. If they sign Edelman instead of Amendola, they can afford to keep Aqib Talib, someone we are targeting for CB2. If they do that, Amendola goes back to St. Louis and signs a contract.

This now takes away 3 Receivers for us to sign, and takes away one of the Corners we were looking at.

Most likely we'll end up with Sean Smith, our #1 target, or DRC/Nnamdi.

If we don't sign Smith, who a number of teams are after, we will have more foreseeable cap room open to sign another wide receiver, since we seem to be ignoring the RT issue. Thus allowing the Greg Jennings rumors that I heard an hour ago, to actually turn into something tangible. And I don't like Greg Jennings.

Hopefully instead of Greg Jennings, the Chiefs end up being one of the 5-6 teams that contacted Karlos Dansby immediately after his release, and we end up signing a DRC/Namdi deal, as well as shoring up our linebacker position.

All eyes at this point are on the Patriots and Danny Amendola. If they don't sign him, we will likely lose Talib, and MUST pursue Sean Smith or face much weaker alternatives.

What? Is Welker not very fond of money? How did that happen?

Now if that's true, that freaking sucks. I can't understand the Pats not giving him 3 years at 6, or 2 years at 6.5. That's just stupid...

Agreed, he must have had a VERY short list of teams he would consider... and he must really not be happy with Broncos' management.

Donnie Avery gets 11 million over 3 years and Welker gets 2 for 12. I hate the Avery signing.

If it's only a two-year deal it must be a lot of guaranteed money.

Wes isn't that old, but he's got a lot of wear on the tires. I appreciate what he did here, but I think Belichick was tired of watching Welker drop passes when it counted the most. Welker's going to get along great with Manning; they both produce ridonkulous stats but come up short (no height joke intended) at the worst times.

As Amnorix pointed out, the Pats have other options for the short game. If (and that's a big "if") they can finally get both Gronk and AHern to stay healthy then that part of the game is still pretty viable. They need more of an outside threat to stretch the field and provide big-play ability and keep the defenses from loading up close to the line.

The Pats won three Super Bowls. None of them with Welker or Randy Moss. They won them with clutch defensive players like Ty Law and Rodney Harrison (pre-Giants facemask bounce). Offense sells tickets, defense wins games. I already had the pleasure (and pain) of watching the 2007 record-setting offense go 18-1. The Broncos will suffer the same fate if they worry too much about putting toys around an aging Peyton and not enough about getting the defense top-notch.

Seriously.....2 years and $12 million? ****.

TBG what is your guy saying about Sean Smith?

Peyton Manning discount

I'm guessing nearly all of it is guaranteed.

Unless Jones, Bequette, Hightower, all develop into monsters and NE finds help at CB, you're ****ed.

2 years at $6M per makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. It makes no sense for Welker, and it makes no sense for the Patriots. This is beginning to smell more like a situation where Belichick and Welker had a falling-out and just couldn't work with each other any more. Which wouldn't surprise me, since I believe they've had issues ever since Welker made the feet comments about Rex Ryan and Belichick benched Welker for the first part of the following game IIRC. But if that's the case, the Pats should've tagged his ass and gotten something for him.

Wow.

Who cares about corners?...we better go out and get a handful of pass rushers.

We're going to need both.

I have faith in Jones and Hightower. I have no faith in the cornerback situation. For a guy who's supposed to be a defensive genius, Belichick can't find a defensive back who's half as good as Ty Law was. I still wouldn't have any other head coach but I admit the events of 2007 and 2011 have taken the shine off of him.

how about a ****ing d-lineman worth a shit that can push the pocket against these pass happy offenses

there's a ****ing novel concept.

Help us Bernard Pollard! You're our only hope!

That's debatable.
Early reports were that Welker and the Pats were "miles" apart, which means they probably offered him 3 years at about 11-12 million, with maybe 1/3rd of that guaranteed. They already tried to phase Welker out of the offense at the beginning of last year, and banked on Edelman being his replacement.
Why would we need pass rushers because Welker is there? Welker is a slot guy and in case you didn't watch the Patriots play last year, like I did, the pass rush will do NOTHING to combat Welker. The Patriots played a no-huddle, quick release offense last year to combat the pass rush. It worked incredibly well.

What we need is a #2 corner, a coverage linebacker, and a nickel corner.

We have 2 out of 3 already on this roster. We have one of the best linebackers in football with DJ, and we have a very good nickel corner in Arenas.

We don't have the #2 CB though.

I can't decide what's funnier: Denver wasting cap space on someone they don't need, or Patsies fans' tears.

Was it Arenas or Flowers on Welker last time we played? I recall is pretty much taking him out of the game