Tommy Kelly says he wants to return to the Patriots next year, why that's unlikely

In a way, the above gif really sums up the Patriots season.

Tommy Kelly, picked up in the offseason prior, was one of many Patriots starters to hit the injured reserve. He suffered a knee injury against the Bengals in Week 5, and later was placed on IR to end his season.

Speaking for the first time since all of that, Kelly may have revealed that he did in fact tear his ACL.

NESN:

“To me, it’s all about how much you want it,” Kelly said about returning from injury in the twilight of his career. “If you want to keep playing — do what you gotta do. And plus, I done been through it before. This is my second one. So, it was a clean tear. I’ll be all right.”

Will Tommy Kelly be back? He certainly hopes so, but as NESN points out, he is 33 and will be owed $2,656,250 in 2014. According to patscap.com, the team also only takes a $500,000 hit if they were to cut him.

Still, Kelly wants to be back with the Patriots next year.

“Oh yeah, that’s my play. That’s my play,” Kelly said. “Every day, just rehab, rehab, rehab.”

The classic Patriots move would be to ask him to restructure his deal, or they will cut him. If Kelly is fine with that, he could certainly be back with the team in time for training camp, anything after that will be determined by how well he's healed from injury.

With the backups getting so much experience, and some like Sealver Siliga showing a lot of potential, the team may not need Kelly. His career as a Patriot could very well be over.