Wes Welker to New England?

[NGSeiler]

Originally Posted by remix 6

you realize the contract IS NOT 7 years 38.5 million anymore, right?

Obviously.

But if I had to guess, I would think the seven-year deal New England had drawn up would have been similar to the one Seattle gave Nate Burleson last spring.

Burleson's offer was a seven-year $49 million offer sheet that basically broke down into a four-year $14.5 million contract followed by three additional years of huge salaries he has no chance of seeing. I would be shocked if New England's massive offer sheet for Welker wasn't the same kind of arrangement where a significant portion of the contract was backloaded and unattainable.

As Rotoworld's comments on the Welker offer said, "The $39 million figure that was floated for Welker's proposed offer sheet probably included a lot of phony money and years." ProFootballTalk echoed those sentiments: "But the key here is that much of that deal would have been back-end fluff aimed at persuading the Dolphins not to match the deal, especially since it likely would have included a poison-pill provision." Meaning, stuff at the end of the deal that Welker had no chance of seeing but contributed to the inflation of the deal's total value.

But hey, if you're happy trading what will probably be an inconsequential seventh round pick to Miami simply so you can get that $38.5 million out of the discussion, even though the number itself was very likely significantly inflated by junk money in the final years that Welker would never see, so be it. The bottom line is you're still giving up a second round pick for Welker, which IMO is too much.