Patriots Unlikely To Franchise WR Wes Welker, But “Progress” Made On An Extension

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that the New England Patriots are “not expected” to franchise WR Wes Welker before Monday’s 4pm ET deadline.

Tom Curran of CSNNE.com reports that “progress has been made” between the Patriots and Welker towards a long-term contract extension.

Tagging Welker would run New England $11.5 million next season because they wound up franchising him list year.

Previous reports indicated that a three-year deal could be in the works, but we’ll have to see if the Patriots do in fact elect to pay one of their big name players as he heads into his mid-thirties.

New England is expected to have $25 million in cap space to work with, but tagging either OT Sebastian Vollmer or CB Aqib Talib would run them close to $10 million for either player.

We have Welker listed as the No. 9 best available player in our Top 50 Free Agents list.