Patriots WR Danny Amendola A Possible Release Candidate?

According to Ben Volin of the Boston Globe, Patriots WR Danny Amendola could be fighting for a roster spot during training camp next year.

Volin points to the fact that Amendola is coming off a frustrating season in which he not only dealt with injuries, but also lost the trust of QB Tom Brady.

Add in the fact that he signed a five-year, $28.5 million contract that also included $10 million guaranteed, despite being outplayed by Julian Edelman this season, and you can see why the idea makes some sense.

New England will need to free up some cap space in order retain some of their free agents like Edelman, CB Aqib Talib, ILB Brandon Spikes and RB LeGarrette Blount.

Releasing Amendola isn’t exactly a simple move to make given that they would incur a cap hit of $225,000 or so. However, they could free up close to $1.375 million by designating Amendola as a June 1 release. This would leave them with $3.5 million or so in dead money for each of the next two years.

There are other ways for the Patriots to create cap space including reworking some of their large contracts like DT Vince Wilfork or even releasing guys like DT Isaac Sopoaga and SS Steve Gregory

It would be surprising to see New England elect to go this route just one year into Amendola’s contract, but I guess there is always the Patriots could cut ties and focus on other players.

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26 COMMENTS

  1. They need to do something no doubt. Amendola can’t stay on the field. They need a deep threat, they have Edelman and if Gronk can stay healthy this coming season they will be a machine. I just wish they could have one year fully healthy. Some other guys that could help. Riley Cooper.Emmanuel Sanders, James Jones, Jermichael Finley. and don’t forget Eric Decker.

      • What a retarded post. BOTH of them! Amendola had another FREAK accident!! Just like him breaking his collar bone!! He goes 200 mph at ALL times, and he might not have the same ‘gift’ that a Brandon Lloyd has; which is to AVOID the collision – which can be trained into him by a *GREAT* receivers coach. He is a fricken BEAST receiver who can play many more routes on the tree than anyone else on the team. He is bigger and has even more of an ability to make plays (and freakish catches) than Edelman, who, if you just listened to your idiot self… was injured REPEATEDLY before this last season!!! ACCIDENTS happen to ANYONE!! And you are willing to *EXPECT* that Gronk might stay healthy???????? After his history???????? Unbelievable!!! Now Fletcher is talented in that he is faster than the other LBs, but he looked like a piece of CRAP against the Dolphins; and he cannot actually REPLACE what Spikes did!! Spikes is a friggin beast against the run but suffers huge in coverage as he’s slow as molasses. Spikes will be gone because he had issues showing up to meetings… and what-not. Fletcher may be gone because his attributes have not been valuable to the Pats’ needs. Edelman may be gone because another team may offer him too much money! Amendola might simply regain Tom’s trust in the off-season working out with him, and look like the absolute STUD he was against Buffalo in game one!! You should go watch the tape of Amendola against SF in 2012!! He single-handedly destroyed them!! They couldn’t figure out how to stop him! And he has mad skills that enable him to play all over the field – even as a deep threat!! And some of us are intelligent enough to realize that his ripping his abductor muscles clean off the bone may have hampered him THROUGHOUT this last year’s campaign, meaning; he never got back to full health so that he could do what he will when he’s healed – next year. Cooper and Decker will probably get too much money. Jeremy Maclin and Hakim Nicks are also possible candidates, and Larry Fitzgerald is probably still a dream of Bill’s. And as Larry has said on a couple occasions that he’d LOVE to play for NE/ for Bill/ with TomEffinBrady… perhaps he’ll restructure his contract if we give Arizona someone or a package – with picks.

        • First of all you can kiss my ass. I like Amendola. But if they need to get a Fitzgerald they are going to have to make room. you got problems.

          • HAHA!! I got problems because you can’t debate ONE SINGLE THING I had to say… and I absolutely DEMOLISHED your moronic post!! You sound really stupid. I’m sorry that you ride to school on a short bus, kid. And BTW, I DID SAY that they might be able to give something to get LF, and he WOULD NEED TO restructure his contract. Next time – try to learn how to read so you might keep up. And BTW #2; I’ll *KICK* your ass if you wanna learn some other skills – the hard way. (It’s what I used to do for a living, son)

  2. Who the heck is making the hiring decisions there? NE doesn’t pay to keep Welker but pays Amendola $28.5 mil. ? Amendola is worthless.

      • Adalius Thomas was living/ resting on his laurels – if you have the mental capacity to fathom that. He got LAZY!!! Amendola got fricken…. HURT!!! And VERY BADLY!!! Yet the beast played through it like a damn monster!!

        • First… calm down man. My only point about Amendola being similar to Thomas was that they were both high priced FAs that did not pan out in their first year. Time will tell on Danny and I always love a guy who plays thru the pain, but after one year the results on Thomas and Amendola are the same. Lot of money, hardly any return on investment. I hope Danny gets well and contributes next year but how many small slot receivers do we need? Edelman was home grown, has Bradys trust and had a monster year for millions less than Amendola. Just saying…

    • Thank God you aren’t!! They knew Edelman was JUST AS GOOD as Wes!! And HE was Wes’ “replacement”!! And Amendola was insurance if Edelman came up injured… AGAIN!! You freakin morons don’t understand the game of football!! It is contingent upon INJURIES… which can happen to ANYONE!!! Wes ripped his ACL a few years ago!! He was just LUCKY that it happened at the END of the year. And you should learn how to read. The Pats only guaranteed Amendola TEN mil!! The same they offered Wes!! Amendola was the BEST player on the whole field against Buffalo in week one, and you think he’s worthless????? What an idiot.

  3. Cut Amendola, Gregory, Soopoga let spikes and blount walk and resign edleman, talib(dont overspend the guy has proven to be very injury prone) and if they can get a good receiver like nicks or boldin. Try to restructure wilfork and gronk or try to trade gronk for cap relief the guy is damaged goods hes guaranteed to get hurt pretty much every year

    • Would love to see Nicks in a Pats uniform. He’s just the type of big, strong WR the team has been lacking the past several years.

      • He’s good, but not great. Cooper, Decker, Maclin, Sanders might all be a better fit. Hard tellin’ not knowin’. And who in the hell knows; maybe we’d get one of these guys and they would suffer some freakish injury – while a healthy Amendola could be our Eric Decker – or even more – next year.

    • Gronk played two full seasons without an injury. Now after 2 freak injuries he’s “damaged goods”? I’m certainly glad YOU aren’t running the Pats cause that’s a really dumb argument

    • This is true. Releasing him now is counterproductive. However, designating him as a June 1 release, actually frees up $1.25M this season. If it were me, I would look for cap relief elsewhere and give him another season.

      The idea was proposed by a credible Patriots beat writer, so we felt that it was worth mentioning.

      • I would take issue with your USE of the term “credible”. Our Boston area sports writers are THE MOST assumptive/ speculative/ “rumorville”/ tabloid rag gossip – bunch in the history of sports coverage. You can look that metric up. What I’m saying is; do these writers have an ounce more “credibility” for conjuring up some half-assed *IDEA* than any fan on the world-wide interwebs?? I mean Bill Belichick gives these nobodies… who simply have a freakin’ pen… NOTHING. And you should know this is true of Belichick, and these writers have it BAD! So they just formulate completely uninformed GUESSES as to what the Pats might do. That’s all they CAN do! I’m not meaning to ‘diss’ this particular writer any more than others… but his PURE speculation is based on NOTHING “factual”. Therefore I think your use of the term credible does not fit the conversation. He is credible in other ways, but that does not make his floating out wild CONCOCTIONS any more valid than Jimmy the Clown predicting the end of the world coming this summer.

  4. Release Adrian Wilson, Isaac Sopoaga, Steve Gregory Resign Julian Edleman, Aqib Talib, Legarrete Blount and let Brandon Spikes walk… reconstructure the contracts of Wilfork, Gronkowski, Amendola or even cut Amendola

    • I like your post MUCH more than most uninformed people’s lunacy posted all over the sports blogs…. BUT! I would NOT cut Amendola unless he looks bad in workouts with Tom this off-season, which I doubt will be the case. And how do you know if Adrian Wilson might not have been a huge boost to the team – in the locker room/ training/ gleaning info or the ‘rah-rah’ factor from his energy and experience? AND.. that before he got hurt that he may have looked unfreakunbelievable – and could help this team BIG-time? I mean he was one of the greatest safeties in the NFL – EVER. Sooo; were you there in training camp? I simply despise assumptions, is all

      But we DID see – with our very own eyes… Sopoaga and Gregory fail and we read all about Spikes issues with showing up to meetings. And we DID see Edelman, Talib and Blount impress in a BIG way.

    • And we may already have that guy – in Dobson or Mark Harrison. If we are going after anyone – who could just get injured anyway… let’s go get Larry Fitzgerald. Why mess around? And he is NEVER injured enough to miss a game!!

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