Wes Welker and the New England Patriots have been involved in a little bit of a contract standoff since he signed a franchise tender last week. On Tuesday, team owner Robert Kraft said he would like to keep Welker a "Patriot for life," but only if a deal makes sense for the club.
"Well we'd like to see him be a Patriot for life but it takes two sides," Kraft told Kim Jones of NFL Network Tuesday at the league meetings in Atlanta. "We're just happy he's back in the system. He's a wonderful young man, and a special guy. I think both sides would like to do a deal, but it requires intelligence and putting our team first."
Welker has made some public comments about being unhappy with the negotiations, but Kraft said there are no hard feelings within the organization.
"Anyone can say whatever they want. He's done a great job for us, we're always trying to do whatever we can do to put our team in the best position to win, that means balancing a lot of things, understanding what the cap is, what the cap growth is, how things fit in the system and we try to have values for every position and every player," Kraft said.
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