Wes Welker, WR, New England Patriots (1 Viewer)

[karmarooster]

By Gregg RosenthalAround The League editorPublished: Sept. 10, 2012 at 09:09 a.m. Updated: Sept. 10, 2012 at 09:40 a.m.An offseason of contract unrest between Wes Welker and the New England Patriots gave way to a first regular season game filled with inactivity.Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com notes that Welker only played 43 of 67 snaps against the Titans. That's 64 percent, down dramatically from the 89 percent he played during the 2011 season, according to Reiss. Welker had only three catches for 14 yards and a potential first down went off his facemask early in the game.Welker basically split snaps with Julian Edelman, who took his spot in the slot on roughly one third of the team's snaps. The Patriots vary their gameplan dramatically from one week to the next, so perhaps this is just a blip on the radar.Then again, perhaps it's a sign the offense is moving even more toward the team's two young tight ends and Brandon Lloyd. Perhaps it's a sign of what life would be like without Welker.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000060366/article/wes-welker-splits-snaps-with-julian-edelman

Saw these snap counts on ESPN via Facebook via FBGs:QB Tom Brady -- 67 of 67 TE Rob Gronkowski -- 67 of 67 TE Aaron Hernandez -- 67 of 67 WR Brandon Lloyd -- 57 of 67 WR Wes Welker -- 43 of 67 RB Stevan Ridley -- 40 of 67 WR Julian Edelman -- 23 of 67 RB Danny Woodhead -- 14 of 67 TE Michael Hoomanawanui -- 10 of 67 RB Brandon Bolden -- 6 of 67 FB Lex Hilliard -- 4 of 67 FB Dan Connolly -- 2 of 67 WR Matthew Slater -- 2 of 67 WR Greg Salas -- 0 of 67

 

[David Yudkin]

The whole retricution for not re-signing thing makes no sense to me. None. Why sign a guy for $9 million this year to basically tell him we are not going to play you and give his snaps and targets away. If they wanted Deion Branch numbers from Welker, why franchise him and pay him that much in the first place?

It's not like Edelman came in and put up 10-140-2. Edelman had 1 catch on 2 targets for 7 yards. I didn't get to see much of the game, but from what little I saw it seemed like the Pats were content to grind the ball and look elsewhere yesterday. It's one game. I do not expect the Pats defense and running game to be that efficient every week. Welker could easily have 15 catches next week with a different game plan or game siutations.

 

[Banger]

The whole retricution for not re-signing thing makes no sense to me. None. Why sign a guy for $9 million this year to basically tell him we are not going to play you and give his snaps and targets away. If they wanted Deion Branch numbers from Welker, why franchise him and pay him that much in the first place?It's not like Edelman came in and put up 10-140-2. Edelman had 1 catch on 2 targets for 7 yards. I didn't get to see much of the game, but from what little I saw it seemed like the Pats were content to grind the ball and look elsewhere yesterday. It's one game. I do not expect the Pats defense and running game to be that efficient every week. Welker could easily have 15 catches next week with a different game plan or game siutations.

while that may be true, last year he had 3 targets once in 20 games. Reading the tea leaves in the offseason indicated that this team was going to change the passing attack a bit and they locked up their two TEs and brought in Lloyd, then week 1 he's in for 60% of the snaps and gets a handful of targets. I'm positive he'll be more productive than he was this week but I thought his days 160 targets and 120 catches were long gone. It'll be interesting to watch as this was one of the gambles I banked on this year.

 

[David Yudkin]

The whole retricution for not re-signing thing makes no sense to me. None. Why sign a guy for $9 million this year to basically tell him we are not going to play you and give his snaps and targets away. If they wanted Deion Branch numbers from Welker, why franchise him and pay him that much in the first place?It's not like Edelman came in and put up 10-140-2. Edelman had 1 catch on 2 targets for 7 yards. I didn't get to see much of the game, but from what little I saw it seemed like the Pats were content to grind the ball and look elsewhere yesterday. It's one game. I do not expect the Pats defense and running game to be that efficient every week. Welker could easily have 15 catches next week with a different game plan or game siutations.

while that may be true, last year he had 3 targets once in 20 games. Reading the tea leaves in the offseason indicated that this team was going to change the passing attack a bit and they locked up their two TEs and brought in Lloyd, then week 1 he's in for 60% of the snaps and gets a handful of targets. I'm positive he'll be more productive than he was this week but I thought his days 160 targets and 120 catches were long gone. It'll be interesting to watch as this was one of the gambles I banked on this year.

I assume you mean 3 receptions, not targets. Welker had 5 targets. He's had 5 targets or fewer 7 times as a Patriot. Certainly not the start he had last year, though.

 

[Banger]

The whole retricution for not re-signing thing makes no sense to me. None. Why sign a guy for $9 million this year to basically tell him we are not going to play you and give his snaps and targets away. If they wanted Deion Branch numbers from Welker, why franchise him and pay him that much in the first place?It's not like Edelman came in and put up 10-140-2. Edelman had 1 catch on 2 targets for 7 yards. I didn't get to see much of the game, but from what little I saw it seemed like the Pats were content to grind the ball and look elsewhere yesterday. It's one game. I do not expect the Pats defense and running game to be that efficient every week. Welker could easily have 15 catches next week with a different game plan or game siutations.

while that may be true, last year he had 3 targets once in 20 games. Reading the tea leaves in the offseason indicated that this team was going to change the passing attack a bit and they locked up their two TEs and brought in Lloyd, then week 1 he's in for 60% of the snaps and gets a handful of targets. I'm positive he'll be more productive than he was this week but I thought his days 160 targets and 120 catches were long gone. It'll be interesting to watch as this was one of the gambles I banked on this year.

I assume you mean 3 receptions, not targets. Welker had 5 targets. He's had 5 targets or fewer 7 times as a Patriot. Certainly not the start he had last year, though.

good catch...