New England gave Danny Amendola a big contract last year -- 5 years, $31 million. That might be the starting point in negotiations with Julian Edelman, who ended up filling that role.
Julian Edelman is a free agent, and it’s not going to be cheap for the Patriots to re-sign him. Last year he proved to be everything they were hoping they would get out of Danny Amendola – that reliable, tough, sure-handed slot receiver to take over that Wes Welker role.
It took New England a while to figure out that Edelman, not Amendola, was their new Welker. It was the Denver game in November, I recall, where they finally just stuck Edelman ahead of Amendola for good. But he got plenty of action throughout the year (Amendola missed some games with injuries).
For the year, Edelman caught almost 70 percent of the passes thrown his way. That was No. 1 among all wide receivers who were targeted at least 100 times.
| RECEIVERS WITH BEST CATCH RATIOS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Rec | Target | Percent |
| Julian Edelman, N.E. | 105 | 151 | 69.5% |
| Keenan Allen, S.D. | 71 | 104 | 68.3% |
| Marques Colston, N.O. | 75 | 110 | 68.2% |
| Kendall Wright, Tenn. | 94 | 139 | 67.6% |
| Jordy Nelson, G.B. | 85 | 127 | 66.9% |
| Antonio Brown, Pitt. | 110 | 166 | 66.3% |
| Anquan Boldin, S.F. | 85 | 129 | 65.9% |
| Wes Welker, Den. | 73 | 111 | 65.8% |
| DeSean Jackson, Phil. | 82 | 126 | 65.1% |
| Demaryius Thomas, Den. | 92 | 142 | 64.8% |
| Greg Jennings, Minn. | 68 | 105 | 64.8% |
| Harry Douglas, Atl. | 85 | 132 | 64.4% |
| Eric Decker, Den. | 87 | 136 | 64.0% |
| Pierre Garcon, Wash. | 113 | 181 | 62.4% |
| Larry Fitzgerald, Ariz. | 82 | 134 | 61.2% |
| Brandon Marshall, Chi. | 100 | 164 | 61.0% |
| Andre Johnson, Hou. | 109 | 181 | 60.2% |
| Victor Cruz, NYG | 73 | 122 | 59.8% |
| Emmanuel Sanders, Pitt. | 67 | 112 | 59.8% |
| Alshon Jeffery, Chi. | 89 | 149 | 59.7% |
| T.Y. Hilton, Ind. | 82 | 138 | 59.4% |
| Steve Smith, Car. | 64 | 110 | 58.2% |
| Dez Bryant, Dall. | 93 | 160 | 58.1% |
| Michael Floyd, Ariz. | 65 | 112 | 58.0% |
| Brian Hartline, Mia. | 76 | 133 | 57.1% |
| Hakeem Nicks, NYG | 56 | 101 | 55.4% |
| Dwayne Bowe, K.C. | 57 | 103 | 55.3% |
| Nate Washington, Tenn. | 58 | 105 | 55.2% |
| A.J. Green, Cin. | 98 | 178 | 55.1% |
| Josh Gordon, Clev. | 87 | 159 | 54.7% |
| Calvin Johnson, Det. | 84 | 157 | 53.5% |
| Cecil Shorts III, Jac. | 66 | 124 | 53.2% |
| Mike Wallace, Mia. | 73 | 141 | 51.8% |
| Stevie Johnson, Buff. | 52 | 101 | 51.5% |
| Vincent Jackson, T.B. | 78 | 159 | 49.1% |
| Jerome Simpson, Minn. | 48 | 100 | 48.0% |
| Torrey Smith, Balt. | 65 | 137 | 47.4% |
Edelman’s effectiveness was also remarkably close to what the Patriots got out of Welker. In his final three years there, he caught 69 percent of pass attempts thrown his way – 69.9%, 70.5% and 67.4% in the 2010-2012 seasons.
You’ve got to figure other teams in the AFC East are mulling whether Edelman would fit in their offense and at what price. It would be kind of a two-for-one deal – adding a slot receiver and taking away a key piece from the New England offense. We saw last year with Amendola that you can’t simply stick in any good slot receiver into that offense. The Patriots weren’t as effective when he was in that role rather than Edelman.
—Ian Allan
