Vince Wilfork restructures his contract, stays with Patriots


The Patriots and Vince Wilfork have been at odds over the past couple of weeks.

At one point it looked like it was a sure thing that the star nose tackle would be leaving Foxborough. He had reportedly asked the team for his release and also ripped his nameplate off his locker and cleared it out.

That was a couple of weeks ago. Things have changed.

Recent reports indicated that after a cooling off period, the two sides were able to get some positive momentum. Ultimately this has led to a new deal for Wilfork, that will not only reduce his cap number for 2014, but also keep him in good standing to retire a Patriot.





Wilfork was initially ticked off at the Patriots because they were asking him to take a paycut after a year in which he injured himself in the line of duty.

That took some mending, and apparently some re-recruiting from Patriots owner Robert Kraft, but eventually the deal got done and it keeps Wilfork in New England even longer and likely sets him up to retire with the Patriots.

Initially, Wilfork was owed $11,600,000 for the 2014 season, his final year under contract with the team. The Patriots, only having around $4 million in cap space to work with, wanted him to lower that number.

This new deal will have him with the Patriots for two additional years (through 2016 as noted) which will likely be around the time that the now 32 year old will hang it up. Reports indicate that it lowers Wilfork's cap hit down to $8 million for this season, giving the Patriots $3.6 million more to play with. Roughly they should now have around $7 million in cap space this season now.

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