Dolphins Trade Wes Welker To The Patriots
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The first thing to catch the reader's eye is that this doesn't make sense, because the Patriots were signing Welker to a RFA tender sheet that would have delivered the Dolphins only a second round pick in return. So it appears that the Patriots have wasted a seventh-round pick.
However, the Patriots get two benefits from this trade. First, the Patriots are not going to have to dish out nearly as much money in the long term. NFL Network Total Access has reported that Welker will only receive a 5 year, $18-million deal instead of the potential 7 year, $38-million deal that he was going to get. Though it was likely that pretty much the same contract, minus two bogus years, was signed, it allows the Patriots to honor the spirit of the deal and avoid restructuring problems later down the road.
Secondly, and more importantly, the Patriots get to avoid using the poison pill. Though there has been talk that not using the poison pill would result in accusations of collusion by the NFLPA, the truth is that a poison pill may or may not stand up in court the next time it goes through. This way, the Patriots avoid lawsuits and any of the hoopla that would have gone along with using a poison pill.
So was that worth a seventh-round pick? On a team with so much depth that Day 2 picks are going to be competing just to make the practice squad, I definitely think so.
