The New England Patriots painfully paid wide receiver Danny Amendola $28.5 million and a $6 million signing bonus to fill the void left by Wes Welker, who left to play with the Denver Broncos in 2013. What a huge rip off Amendola turned out to be for the Patriots.
In reality, the team ended up with an often-injured player who only caught 54 passes in the 12 games in which he played. As for those 12 games, Amendola only started in six of them, totaling just 633 receiving yards and two touchdown scores for the 2013 season.
Danny Amendola was on the #Patriots injury report for all 18 games in 2013:
-11 Probable
-4 Questionable
-2 Doubtful
-1 Out— NFL Retweet (@NFLRT) February 16, 2014
Thankfully, the Patriots recently agreed to terms with wide receiver Julian Edelman, who carried the weight of the slacking Amendola last season by totaling over 1,000 receiving yards with 105 catches and six touchdowns.
The Patriots also should have tight end Rob Gronkowski healed from a torn ACL. With receivers Kenbrell Thompkins and Aaron Dobson improving and competing against Amendola for playing time, Danny might not see the field a whole lot in 2014.
Maybe things will look up for Amendola, who was pretty much a fail in his first season with the Patriots. But in reality, they’re dealing with a wide receiver who only has nine touchdowns, 2,359 total receiving yards, and 250 receptions over his five-year NFL career. Other than his second season in 2010, Amendola has never stayed healthy and played all 16 games.
In this case, the Patriots are certainly not getting what they paid for, and that my friends is a classic ripoff.
Photo: Danny Amendola