That Bob Kraft surfaced on this only underscores the seriousness of the situation. He is an ideal owner; I love him. But he is not above pressuring players, or above getting out front publicly so if it goes south, he can say he tried.
Vince Wilfork: new 3 year deal for $22.5m to stay with Patriots
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Exactly. Didn't we hear the same song and dance from Kraft last year about Welker? How is this any different?dcmissle said:
He's mentioning Vince as an all time favorite Patriot. I don't recall Weller getting that compliment from Kraft. I think it's an honest statement from Kraft with little spin.
Plus Welker was a free agent
Plus Welker was a free agent
So it looks like they may have been trying to get Vince his money, but spread the cap hit with clauses not LTBE, since he missed most of last year? If Vince could have gotten, say, 5-7.5 million and gotten a decent extension, I think he'd be crazy to turn that down, especially after the Raji contract. Maybe Vince is expecting to miss a good chunk of the start of the season and feels he's earned the right to be paid through that injury time.
dcmissle said:
...which from a fan's perspective is exactly what he should be doing. Now the onus has shifted a bit, with an inference - however slight - that Vince is digging his heels in.
New article with Vince quote from Curran. It actually sounds promising.
http://www.csnne.com/blog/patriots-talk/brightening-skies-stormy-wilfork-front
RedOctober3829 said:
Y'know, I bet players like seeing that. There are so many coaches that try to go no comment, but when pressed say something about a player. The players pretty clearly like to speak--or not speak--for themselves. I imagine Belichick's hard-line refusal to speak of the players in that way and to let his players control things in the media more helps his standing with them.
Thank you to Vince for making clear he hasn't said JACK or SHIT to a reporter.
Which, if you've been following along, means the NFL Network employs the guy who overheard the guy who said to the other guy that he saw Ferris throw up at 31 Flavors last night.
Which, if you've been following along, means the NFL Network employs the guy who overheard the guy who said to the other guy that he saw Ferris throw up at 31 Flavors last night.
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MentalDisabldLst
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Reverend said:
Or the players don't care one way or the other, and BB is just giving up one opportunity for him to exert leverage over these situations by determining the narrative.
Who cares about determining the narrative, though? Is there one example of a coach talking about an issue like this and having that provide any benefit whatsoever?MentalDisabldLst said:
The Patriots' actions speak louder than any words, anyway. The fact that they haven't cut Wilfork means that they haven't given up hope of him being on the roster in 2014, whether at his current numbers or in a restructure. That they've managed to add pieces without touching Wilfork (by far the biggest potential source of cap savings) tells me that they still value him and will go to lengths to try to keep him.
And this is not surprising. The run defense suffered while Vince was out despite the valiant efforts of some of his replacements, effective nose tackles are hard to find and Vince is apparently a team leader.Super Nomario said:
Whether and when Vince can come back, and how he'll perform when he does return, are all unknowns, but the Patriots would be crazy not to do what they are doing: exploring ways to make this work for both sides.
I know that Vince isn't the first "large" human to succeed at nose tackle. Vince's immediate predecessor, Ted Washington, wasn't exactly svelte. But Vince's ability to play at his level at that weight always amazed me, and I was always worried that he'd pop his achilles or suffer some other horrible injury. That's a long way of saying that I have my doubts about his comeback, though at the same time Vince has defied logic in my mind since the get go, so who the hell knows?
dcmissle said:
Of course there is SOMETHING to this - he's carrying a huge cap hit in the last year of his contract and coming off an injury. There was a non-zero chance that his contract was going to be discussed this offseason.
Many have argued this season about the different 'culture' of a football locker room. One of, if not the most important, symbols in the locker room is the locker. I would not be surprised at all that Vince loudly cleaning out his locker was witnessed by team employees, sales weasels and beat reporters. It is an undeniable part of the culture and a ritual that "says something". It is a long way from "Vince ranted as he cleaned out his locker" (at the end of the season, mind you) to "Vince asked for his release". Rapsheet is not a reliable source. Vince tell us so. Hell, "no comment" from Vince to Curran on that question confirms Rapshit's "exclusive". And Vince specifically refutes it.
Vince makes ~10% of the salary cap, has been here for a decade and has a noted off-field relationship with Kraft. It would surprise me if Kraft were silent. He gets involved in special circumstances like these.
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MentalDisabldLst
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Super Nomario said:
How could someone possibly prove such a thing one way or another? We'll never know in a counterfactual world what would have happened contractually if Coach X hadn't said Y about Player Z.
But the analogy I'll use is politics: take President Obama. He is going to get killed by the same people whether he says something or declines to say anything about nearly any particular issue. Faced with such hobsons' choices, there are some issues where he doesn't consider it worth his time to say anything, but many on which he does, regardless. His audience is frequently not the one he is nominally addressing - perhaps it's signalling to other allies or interest groups (other FAs in the league or players on his team, in the Patriots analogy), perhaps it's to try and paint the opposition into a corner in order to create PR leverage (as Kraft may be doing here by going out of his way to seem reasonable), but there are plenty of reasons to frame a narrative.
My point is that Belichick may decline to speak about players' contract situations out of a sense of dignity or privacy, or because he realizes he's bad at anything involving PR, but it's not like that's an obvious decision that everyone should make - there are rational people who choose otherwise in lots of other situations.
I agree with this. We can't say for certain exactly what happened, but it seems really likely that Wilfork told the team he wanted out at some point in recent weeks. It seems emotions are a little bit cooler and the two sides are now trying to work something out.dcmissle said:
Going into the locker room in the middle of March and ripping off your name plate and cleaning out the locker doesnt seem like normal course business.
Vince didnt really refute the story, he refuted being the source while saying things are up in the air.
Looks like Vince is going to come back. Great news!!
https://twitter.com/wilfork75/status/449296175473364992
https://twitter.com/wilfork75/status/449296175473364992
That's really the best news to come out of all this so far.
GET THIS DONE. It'll be nice to have Big Vince back at 0.
GET THIS DONE. It'll be nice to have Big Vince back at 0.
And boom. There it is:
@AdamSchefter Patriots and DT Vince Wilfork restructured his contract. It's a new 3-year, $22.5M deal, per source. Wilfork stays a Patriot.
@AdamSchefter Patriots and DT Vince Wilfork restructured his contract. It's a new 3-year, $22.5M deal, per source. Wilfork stays a Patriot.
And there's Rapshit juuuuuuuuuust a step late as always:
@RapSheet Source: #Patriots and Vince Wilfork are closing in on a basic agreement on a contract extension that will keep him in New England.
@RapSheet Source: #Patriots and Vince Wilfork are closing in on a basic agreement on a contract extension that will keep him in New England.
Awesome, awesome news. Just get some young DT depth late, and the draft can focus on OL and TE now. Great.
That's a lot more $ that I would like, but we need him this fall/winter. Hope it doesn't sting in 2016. What's the cap hit for 2015 and 2016?
So this year's $7.5 salary times 3
Allows him never to get a pay cut, but brings his AAV to the $7.5 rather than $11
Allows him never to get a pay cut, but brings his AAV to the $7.5 rather than $11
How can you hate it? It opens up cap space for this year Obviously need to see cap hits for the next 2 seasons, but for this year I think it's the best of both worlds. You gain cap space and get the player back.phragle said:
$3 million guaranteed??? Hell yea.
They're still hit with the bonus, but if that $8MM is in PT incentives most will be NLTBE incentives which will roll to '15 if he hits them.SeoulSoxFan said:
Structure details really matter on this one IMO
EDIT: so $3MM guaranteed over 3 years should free up at least $2MM + whatever PT incentives are NLTBE
So, the demise of the Wilfork family financial acumen has been greatly exaggerated.
Do we draft Nix, mentor for one year, and cut him after a year?
Do we draft Nix, mentor for one year, and cut him after a year?
Really great news. I wanted Jared Allen too but 4 of the 5 things on my wish list came true this offseason.
Very nice.
Very nice.
They're counting on the Hernandez money coming off the books and the increase in the cap. I think they'll be fine.Ed Hillel said:
At 3 mil guaranteed I'm on board I guess. I would expect him to be a league average DT at this point though.
Is this going to be an issue again next year or the year after, though?
Is this going to be an issue again next year or the year after, though?
Because he wasn't the player he used to be since 2011. I felt cutting him would have been a good option. Obviously the official numbers could change my opinion drastically, but 22 is a lot and there isn't much left in the FA market to spend the savings on.RedOctober3829 said:
