With all of the offseason success that the New England Patriots have encountered so far in the new NFL year, there is still one glaring negative that hasn’t been resolved so far, the contract situation regarding defensive captain Vince Wilfork. Wilfork, who is 32, had his 2013 NFL season cut to only 4 games due to an Achilles injury against the Atlanta Falcons. With Wilfork having only one year left on his contract, creating an 11 million dollar cap hit, the Patriots have approached him with the idea of restructuring or extending his contract to try and lower that cap number and have more flexibility with free agents and rookies in the draft.
However, Wilfork isn’t taking well to the idea of a restructure and has since requested the organization that he has been a part of since 2004, to release him and let him go in to the free agent market. The Patriots haven’t granted his request as of now and it leaves the two sides in an interesting stand-off. With both sides having valid arguments, the Patriots feeling that Wilfork is up there in age and shouldn’t be costing the franchise that much. Wilfork on the other-hand is arguing that he has given so much to the franchise for so long that he deserves all of that money.
Ultimately, I think cooler heads will prevail and they will both come to their senses and figure out a way to be able to keep him on the roster. Even with the countless examples of players in the past that have been let go, Wilfork could be a special case and stick around.