New England Patriots: Quiet First Day Makes For Busy Week

Jan 20, 2013; Foxboro, MA, USA; New England Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker (83) carries the ball after a catch against the Baltimore Ravens in the second quarter of the AFC championship game at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stew Milne-USA TODAY Sports

The Patriots had an extremely quiet first day of free agency, and some may be annoyed by this but I like it. Spending big on the first day of free agency almost never works out for teams and the Patriots, year after year have proven this.

The main thing that I am excited about, is the fact that none of the Patriots “Big 3” free agents were picked up by other teams. I think this gives the Pats a better chance of resigning them, as a lot of the top free agents are gone after day one. There were some reports that Wes Welker and the Pats are not close on a deal, but I think that with time a deal will get done. In my opinion teams that would want to make a run at Welker probably would have done that on the first day and so far there has been no reports of that. Sebastian Vollmer is another guy I am confident the Pats will resign. The Colts, Bears and Rams all needed offensive line help and they did not go after Vollmer today. In fact they all went in different directions on the offensive line front. I think this shows that Vollmer is not going to command some of the interest on the market that a lot of us thought, and it gives the Pats a solid shot at resigning him. Aqib Talib is the one guy that has been mentioned in reports with teams other than the Patriots. The Colts are the main team as Talib’s name came up multiple times in reports with the Colts. However, there have been a lot of different stories saying that the Pats really want to get something done with Talib, and I am holding out hope that they will come to an agreement sometime this week.

Another reason I think the Pats will be busy this week is because there are still a lot of solid cornerbacks on the market. This is obviously a position of need for the Patriots and if they want to further improve their secondary I think they will go after a few of these guys. The two guys that have been mentioned with the Pats previously, and are still on the market are Sean Smith and Derek Cox. Both are good players that will most likely come at a relatively cheap price. Aqib Talib obviously is another guy that I hope the Pats sign. If  the Patriots can get two of these three guys, then I believe they will be in very good shape.

All in all, the Pats do their free agent business better than anybody in the league, as evidenced by their decade of dominance in the NFL. Because all three of their big free agents made it out of the first day I think the Pats will be very busy over the next week or so trying to lock up their guys for 2013.