New England Patriots thread (MOD WARNING - #4503)

Son Of A Vidic

counterlock wrote: »

So Gronks broken arm was just another injury? My hoop it was, it was a one in a million play that ended up with him being injured.

Freaky injuries? Or normal injuries? I thought my view on these was pretty clear when I posted this..

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

To me it's all semantics, he went down, he missed time. Freaks or not, these injuries need to stop when he arrives at Gillette.

But since you mentioned Gronk, he is an established Patriot. An elite player, who even when missing games, racks up the kinda of numbers few players can equal. A guy who scored more TD's last season, than Amendola has in his entire career thus far. So what relevance has Gronk got to Amendola??? Gronk has proven himself in the system.

You say both of Amendola injuries were freak injuries. Well do you know what that means? It means he has two consecutive seasons where he has had freaky injuries. So will next year be the the third? Amendola has missed 20 games in 2 seasons and that's the bottom line for me.

Wes Welker was a full season performer, Amendola is not. And that is my concern. So whether he tears a hamstring on a route or dislocates his elbow while scracthing his arse is not important. The issue is the game time he has missed.

At least he will probably get a superbowl ring now.

Son Of A Vidic

Deleted User wrote: »

At least he will probably get a superbowl ring now.

Well that's why Danny joined us, he wouldn't be winning much with the Rams.

Gronkastic

davyjose wrote: »

"Manning to Welker... Touchdown!!!"

"Oh no, Welker drops it again."

counterlock

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Freaky injuries? Or normal injuries? I thought my view on these was pretty clear when I posted this..



But since you mentioned Gronk, he is an established Patriot. An elite player, who even when missing games, racks up the kinda of numbers few players can equal. A guy who scored more TD's last season, than Amendola has in his entire career thus far. So what relevance has Gronk got to Amendola??? Gronk has proven himself in the system.

You say both of Amendola injuries were freak injuries. Well do you know what that means? It means he has two consecutive seasons where he has had freaky injuries. So will next year be the the third? Amendola has missed 20 games in 2 seasons and that's the bottom line for me.

Wes Welker was a full season performer, Amendola is not. And that is my concern. So whether he tears a hamstring on a route or dislocates his elbow while scracthing his arse is not important. The issue is the game time he has missed.

You can stick your head in the sand or look at the facts, this is not a player who has a dodgy ACL or hamstring. The human body doesn't care about semantics or your love for them - What do you think chances of reoccurring the injuries he had that put him out for 20 games? I'd put it at about 0.5%. Welkers injury M/ACL injury was much worse than either of these - but he didn't miss any game time so you don't care?

bruschi

bruschi wrote: »

thing is, if I were the Denver Broncos for example, it would pay me to take on Welker, give him his money, and if he is good, great, if not, well at least I have hindered one of my main rivals best weapons and made them a weaker side, which is to my advantage. win win all round, for the Denver Broncos.

FFS. $12m for 2 years, and we couldnt match that. Ridiculous. I honestly cant believe we have let him go for effectively peanuts. Yeah I can read all the stats on Amendola and his second best drop ratio as opposed to Welkers second worse.

But none of them matter a damn when I see Welker catching a ball over the middle through traffic, getting jacked up, and just dusting himself down and lining back up in the slot again and doing it over and over and over.

In a god damn Broncos uniform. :mad:

Catching for Peyton Manning. :mad::mad::mad::mad:

CJC86

Apparently the incentives in the contract offer from the Pats could have got Welker up to $6m more over the next 2 years, whereas his incentives with Denver will be $150,000 if he makes 85 catches in a year. I wonder if he was afraid that Bill and Josh wouldn't let him see a snap-count to reach those incentives; he's always seemed like a guy who back himself.

Anyway, time to move on. I'm excited to see what Amendola can do with Brady if he stays healthy.

Johnny_Fontane

Is it too early to talk about succession planning for brady at this stage? He's 36 in August, how many years are we talking?

j8wk2feszrnpao

We won't know if this is a good/bad release of Wes and signing of Danny until mid point of the season.

At the moment I'd expect Wes to be Wes for Denver, and Danny to step up and raise his profile with one of the elite teams.

It's tough to see Wes go. But at the end of the day I trust Bill on this (as this has been in the planning for a while I'd imagine).

Doubt this will be our last free agent signing. We need to add to the defense as well.

Son Of A Vidic

counterlock wrote: »

You can stick your head in the sand or look at the facts, this is not a player who has a dodgy ACL or hamstring

Are you serious? Did you read any of my posts properly? I've been trying to make you understand, that the 'how' and the 'why' of how he missed time is irrelevant for me. The bottomline is he missed a lot of time. What worries me and a lot of Patriot fans is his durability.

counterlock wrote: »

this is not a player who has a dodgy ACL or hamstring. The human body doesn't care about semantics or your love for them - What do you think chances of reoccurring the injuries he had that put him out for 20 games? I'd put it at about 0.5%.

Why don't you ring Paddy Powers on that one and they might forward you some odds.

counterlock wrote: »

Welkers injury M/ACL injury was much worse than either of these - but he didn't miss any game time so you don't care?

Care about what? What has 'caring' got to do with anything? We have enough players already who are fond of the sicknote. Thankfully the likes of Chung and Dowling have been shipped out. So when we sign a guy who missed 20 games in 2 seasons I am naturally worried. Why is that so difficult for you to understand?

Every article and report about the guy on the internet right now, questions his durability. So how clearer can I make it for you? He missed a lot of time and this worries people. Here are just a few of those articles....

Rams GM Les Snead has this to say back in February...

He's missed 20-of-32 games over the past two seasons. "Just like physical skill comes into play, just like production comes into play, your ability to be on the field comes into play," explained Snead. "That's a fact of life. I think everybody knows it and I'd be remiss to not tell you that."

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/50917546/sports/player_news

there are questions about Amendola’s durability — he has played in only 12 games in the last two seasons

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/13/patriots-danny-amendola-agree-to-five-year-31-million-deal/

There has been little doubt about Amendola’s talent since he broke out in 2010, but the question has been his durability.

http://bostonherald.com/sports/patriots_nfl/new_england_patriots/2013/03/patriots_slot_danny_amendola_in_to_fill_void

Rams GM Les Snead confirmed free agent Danny Amendola's durability woes are a point of contention in long-term contract talks.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/50917546/sports/player_news

Danny Amendola will be hard-pressed to prove as durable as Wes Welker. Since entering the NFL in 2009, Amendola has missed 23 games. Welker, on the other hand, has missed just three games during that span.

http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/id/9049710/danny-amendola-agrees-five-year-deal-new-england-patriots-source

JaMarcus Hustle

Dowling hasn't been shipped out?

Son Of A Vidic

RB and kick return specialist Leon Washington is currently visiting the Pats. And I'm beginning to think they were serioulsy píssed when Demps decided to go back sprinting.

Son Of A Vidic

JaMarcus Hustle wrote: »

Dowling hasn't been shipped out?

I stand corrected, I assumed he was gone when I read this yesterday...

TO. wrote: »

Dowling to Cardinals

Hazys

One thing to note is that Welker had one major injury but people forget that because it happened in the 2nd to last game of the season and he only missed one game.

A lot of people would be more comfortable with a guy who had 2 "freak" injuries to one who had surgury to reconstruct his knee. Obviously, Welker made a full recovery, no reason to think Amendola won't.

Just sayin'

eagle eye

Amendola came back from the collar bone after three weeks but then he went out again with a heel injury. That second injury is the type of one that worries people.

Son Of A Vidic

I have absolutely no doubt Amendola has fully recovered from his injuries and his quick return last season was very positive. I just hope his run of missed games can be left behind with the Rams. And if it can be, then I'll be delighted.

So assuming Amendola will have no durability issues, then he could prove to be a very good signing. His talent is not in question and those 2 extra inches in height gives Brady that little bit more of a target. No doubt Brady can and will maximise his potential.

Tying up a 27 year old Amendola makes real good sense from a business persective and from a team perspective. So if the guy can stay on the field, then this could all end very well for us.

Son Of A Vidic

eagle eye wrote: »

then he went out again with a heel injury. That second injury is the type of one that worries people.

Just seen your post EE, I didn't know he had a heel issue, do you have anything else on it?

eagle eye

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Just seen your post EE, I didn't know he had a heel issue, do you have anything else on it?

Amendola immediately grabbed the back of his right foot after a Bradford pass sailed incomplete on third down. He hopped right to his feet, but couldn’t put much weight on that side as he limped off the field.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/11/18/danny-amendola-limps-off-field/

He missed most of that game and a full two games over it and when he came back he didn't do much over the remaining games of the season.

helimachoptor

It seems Welker was shopped to the Titans.. A tweet from Paul Kuharsky says that The Titans GM took a call from the Pats, they looked into doing a deal but Welker "was already with another team"

j8wk2feszrnpao

Is anyone surprised that he only got a 2yr $12m deal?
Doesn't appear that anyone was going to give him the deal he had wanted.

bruschi

Odin Brief Watchband wrote: »

Is anyone surprised that he only got a 2yr $12m deal?
Doesn't appear that anyone was going to give him the deal he had wanted.

is anyone not suprised should be the question. I doubt anyone thought he would go for as low as that.

Chucky the tree

Chances are he could have gotten more if he was willing to go to a non-contender. I'm not surprised the best teams weren't willing to throw much more money at him.

Son Of A Vidic

bruschi wrote: »

is anyone not suprised should be the question. I doubt anyone thought he would go for as low as that.

I said in-thread awhile back, that there would be a limited market for a banged up, soon to be 32 year old slot receiver. But I never expected him to go for so little.

Son Of A Vidic

Just checking the roster and I forgot we signed this guy to the practice squad in January...

Andre Holmes, 24, 6'4' and 223 Lbs. He has got the kind of intriguing size that none of our current WR's have. I know nothing about him, so is this kid potentially a good developmental prospect, or will he end up as a training camp body?

Phoenix Park

Chucky the tree wrote: »

Chances are he could have gotten more if he was willing to go to a non-contender. I'm not surprised the best teams weren't willing to throw much more money at him.

Really? Have to say i disagree. I'm staggered he has gone for such low money and that other big teams weren't willing to pay him more. If the best teams have some great no.1 option at receiver (Thomas in the case of Denver) surely they will often be double-covered, hence freeing up a bit more room for Welker to do what he does best. Fair enough, there are top teams whose strengths lie elsewhere, but plenty of other big teams could do with that option he gives a QB. He HAS gone to a big contender after all, i'm surprised others were not queuing up for him myself, he's tough as nails and he's still got 2 or 3 years at the top imo. Manning must be creaming himself, surely other QB's at contending teams would feel similar. I can't understand the money, even considering his age.

TO.

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

I stand corrected, I assumed he was gone when I read this yesterday...

And a few posts later I wrote this:

TO. wrote: »

Rich Eissen mentioned it:

Rich Eisen ‏@richeisen Vatican Cardinals choose Francis I, Arizona Cardinals choose Rashard I. Per League Source.

Edit: Ignore me he most likely means Mendenhall. The draw backs of reading **** while on a phone.

Son Of A Vidic

TO. wrote: »

And a few posts later I wrote this:

TO. wrote: »

Rich Eissen mentioned it:

Rich Eisen ‏@richeisen Vatican Cardinals choose Francis I, Arizona Cardinals choose Rashard I. Per League Source.

Edit: Ignore me he most likely means Mendenhall. The draw backs of reading **** while on a phone.

Which I totally missed, thanks to my shít slow WiFi connection yesterday.

TO.

Seems like we were dealing Welker out no matter what happened:

http://www.csnne.com/blog/patriots-talk/amendola-signed-patriots-welkers-decision

Well, this changes things a little. Danny Amendola signed with the New England Patriots on Tuesday, about a day before Wes Welker agreed to terms with the Denver Broncos.

News of Amendola's agreeing to a deal with New England broke after the Welker news, making it seem a reactionary move on the part of the Patriots. In reality, the Patriots' reaction came when Welker and his representatives made it clear they would test the free-agent market. With Amendola's contract in place, the Patriots could not afford to let him leave without signing and risk losing both him and Welker.

The Welker camp remained steadfast that the receiver's market would be in the $8 million to $9 million-per-season range. New England disagreed, which in part led them to prepare for Welker's departure.

And once Amendola agreed, there was no turning back.

eagle eye

Why the hell didn't Welker take the $15 million on offer from Tennessee then?

TO.

eagle eye wrote: »

Why the hell didn't Welker take the $15 million on offer from Tennessee then?

Reading a report it seems Manning and the Broncos convinced him to play there as he had a better chance to win in Denver. He obviously knew the Pats wanted him out. It was then down to take the money or find a team you can prove yourself on and have a chance to win a bowl. Don't forget Welker will be thirsty to get a Bowl ring having come close so many times with the Pats.