Vollmer & Talib; Gone From the Pats?
In a piece by Boston.com’s Greg Bedard, he hints that Talib and Vollmer may end up walking away from the Patriots this offseason. Basically, this year most teams think that the amount of players in free agency will outweigh the demand for those players, thus bringing the cost for these players down. This ideology is evident in the simple fact that there were only 8 franchise tags used this offseason; it’s all about value, value, value.
Though teams don’t want to overpay, it is a fact that there are a few teams that do have major money to spend. The Indianapolis Colts and the Miami Dolphins are two examples of teams that have quite a bit of cash. When talking about the market being set for a player, it only takes one team to overpay for the Patriots to lose Vollmer and Talib.
Vollmer plays right tackle which is the easier of the two tackle positions and it is worth mentioning that the Patriots think highly of his back-up Marcus Cannon. Vollmer is undoubtedly one of the top tackles in this year’s free agency class which leads me to agree with Bedard. The problem for the Patriots giving him a big deal comes down to the value placed at the position, combined with his back issues. I believe in Scarnecchia as a coach so a draft pick might not be out of the question as I’ve written previously.
Aqib Talib will be asking for serious money, it’s just his nature as a player. The Patriots aren’t going to be willing to throw huge money at a corner (especially one with off-the-field issues) as they have demonstrated in the past. I don’t care about the off-field tribulations of Talib, I am much more concerned with the fact that he seems a bit injury prone, AKA a puss. Nonetheless I’ll take him back for the right price with the difference he made on the defense. Reports are also surfacing today that Talib and the Pats are talking about a potential contract, but nothing’s agreed upon.
Free agency officially starts in a week, but under the new CBA teams can contact player’s this weekend to talk in what’s known as “the legal tampering period.” Look for a lot of your questions to be answered by this weekend and the week thereafter.
Josh Brown
@TitleTownTalkSB