New England Patriots to sign Sebastian Vollmer for one year?

The New England Patriots re-signed Aqib Talib today on a one-year deal worth $5 million, which is significantly less than what we thought Talib would get on the open market. He is significantly better than Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, and yet he received the exact same kind of deal. This reflects the lack of interest in Talib, and the fact that he got “left behind” after the deals given to other CBs like Chris Houston and Sean Smith.

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It looks like Sebastian Vollmer is in the same boat, because it seems like he has a small market in free agency as well. The similarities between Vollmer’s free agency and what Talib was going through are uncanny, and Vollmer also got left behind in a way. Phil Loadholt and Gosder Cherilus both received huge deals early on in free agency, and the right tackle market likely thinned out for the 28-year-old standout, who might be the league’s best RT. Vollmer may just be waiting for Jake Long‘s deal in order to set himself up to make left tackle money, but that might be a stretch for him at this point in time.

Now while this is bad news for Vollmer, this is all very good news for the New England Patriots. They could scoop up both Talib and Vollmer (two of their big three free agents this offseason) on cheap deals, and Greg Bedard of the Boston Globe “wouldn’t be surprised” to see Vollmer also come back to the Pats on a one-year deal.

That is clear a worse deal than what Vollmer had in mind, but it could help him in a way. One of Talib’s motivations for signing a one-year deal was to establish himself in 2013 and put himself into a position to have a huge pay day in a less soft market in the 2014 offseason. Vollmer could do the same, and he could show that he doesn’t deserve to be “left behind” (or something of that nature) in 2014. It looks like Vollmer is heading down that road, and that’s great news for the New England Patriots.

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