It seems a silly question at first blush. One of the most productive, most reliable receivers over the past few years should have teams clamoring for his service, but if that’s the case we certainly haven’t heard about it.
No matter who he plays for Welker will be a 5’9, 32 year old slot receiver, and he won’t be helped by a WR draft class that looks pretty deep. Greg Jennings is only 29 and he’s having trouble finding teams willing to pay him top dollar. So who’s going to cough up a rich contract for Welker?
Part of the problem is that Welker has never received full credit for his production (at least in the court of public opinion.) He was essentially unheard of before being paired up with Tom Brady and there seems to be some concern that he could slip back into obscurity with a less talented QB. Again, this is more public opinion than scouting report.
The bottom line is there just aren’t any teams (outside of New England) that can justify giving Welker a big contract. The Browns come to mind as a potential landing spot thanks to ample cap space and some ties to the Patriots a la Michael Lombardi, but I just can’t see it. The Bengals have the cap space to pull it off and it’s hard to argue against an offense that features AJ Green stretching the field with Welker underneath, but again I just don’t see it. Andrew Hawkins did a pretty good job with the underneath stuff. A quick role through the rest of the league leaves me looking at the Texans. Not sure what their cap looks like, but adding Welker as an underneath element with Andre Johnson, and Owen Daniels stretching the field is about the best fit I can find.
38.895112 -77.036366
