Peter king reported these 2 rumors about Waters. Pretty weird how this is playing out. Sounds like the Pats are saying come back on the contract you signed with us or retire. I think I'd love to know what the heck happened to Brian Waters. The man goes from a Pro Bowl guard for a Super Bowl team, New England -- still playing well -- to vanishing into thin air the next. Not a word from him. Just a trail of rumors. He wanted more money (his base salary is $1.4 million) to play one year. He wanted to play close to his Texas home, with the Texans, but the Patriots wouldn't accommodate him. And why would they, if that's so? Why strengthen a conference foe?
I think that is a slight misrepresentation of the situation, or then again, maybe I have it incorrect. I thought last year he was pretty much retired, or at least thinking about it seriously. No one offered him a contract because he was contemplating retirement. The season started. The pats offered him a deal after week 1 to come back and play and he accepted. This offseason he is once again deciding whether to play or call it quits. My point is, I think it was reasonable to think that if the guy almost retired last year, but came back for another year, that he would again revisit the idea when the year is over.
Not sure where you heard that. He was in camp with the Chiefs last year and they cut him, here is his statement on cut day "The Chiefs and I have mutually agreed on this decision and although I look forward to continuing my career, I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Kansas City.” So he clearly wanted to play last year and wasn't considering retirement.
I didn't catch any of the Pats game this week. How did the Pats o-line fare? And I thought it was pretty much guaranteed this guy was coming back?
The line play was good. Brady got sacked once but didn't have a lot of pressure most of the day. Their run-blocking was fantastic. Ridley had huge holes to run through all day long. One side note, they did lose Connolly to a possible slight concussion, which would be his second or third (can't recall) in a couple of years. Connolly was their starting center. And Dan Koppen, who was cut at the end of the preseason, signed with Denver this week. So there's no back-up plan there. It sounds like the whole situation with Waters went sour at some point, and it's a total mystery to everyone except the front office in Foxboro (and Waters, of course). Supposedly, they had a verbal agreement at the end of last season to play out this year of his contract in an incentive-based way. I don't know if it's that Waters wants more money or if his priorities have changed... either way he's not here, and doesn't look like he'll be playing this season.
He signed a two year contract with the Pats last year. If one of these rumors are true that he wants more money to come back for another year or wanted to play for the Texans, he messed himself up. I'm sure he could have just signed for one yeay
Connolly started at guard in Waters spot. Wendell is the starting Center right now. Connolly passed all the concussion tests and should be fine according to all reports here, though they may take it slow with him (1 game?). Donald Thomas is the backup at that spot.
It seems to me that Brian played well beyond expectations last year and as such deserved a raise. The question is how much did he ask for?
Right, my bad. I figured they would call Koppen, get him in, play him at Center, and let Wendell take the guard spot. They always seem to have unknown guys waiting in the wings. I'm pretty sure they won't have o-line issues even if Connolly takes some time.
Patriots offereed Waters $4 Million to return this season http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/extra_points/2012/09/updating_the_wa.html
