Borges: Don't cut Vince Wilfork

It has become fashionable in recent weeks for the chattering class to loudly advocate for the release of five-time Pro Bowl nose tackle Vince Wilfork, their argument being he costs too much and is coming off a serious injury.

Before we get to the former issue let’s talk about the latter.

Did Wilfork get hurt skateboarding? Did he tear his Achilles tendon breakdancing or playing pickup basketball in a Wednesday night men’s league? Did he get carted off the side of the Alps on a ski trip? Was he on crutches because he leapt into a mosh pit?

No, folks, Wilfork got hurt on the job. Now if you believe that everybody who gets hurt on the job should be fired then do what you will with him, but if you don’t, why talk like he’s a used piece of office furniture in need of replacement?

Vince Wilfork is not only a human being he’s been a hard-working employee for 10 years in Foxboro. He’s been to five Pro Bowls and was a major contributor to a Super Bowl championship and two AFC titles. In short, he earned the contract he was given. It wasn’t handed to him.

That brings us to the numbers, which to some misguided segments of fandom seem to be all that matters.

The 32-year-old Wilfork is a nose tackle entering the final year of a five-year contract he signed in 2010 and the chickens are coming home to roost, his critics say, because along with him comes an $11.6 million cap hit this year.

That number, like Wilfork, is an enormous figure that the chattering class (whose total knowledge seems to be their fantasy football lineup) see as reason enough to release him. Usually, of course, that is said only after some form of “I really love Vince Wilfork but . . .”

If that’s love what do you say if you hate the guy?

Their argument is that the Patriots would gain $7.58 million in cap savings by letting Wilfork go. They often follow this with arguments like “It’s a passing league” or “The Patriots need a shutdown corner” or “Sealver Siliga is much younger and cheaper.”

While those things may be true to some extent they have nothing to do with Wilfork’s value or even the Patriots’ alleged cap woes.

First off, with a cap of $133 million the Patriots don’t have any cap woes that demand Wilfork be released. Second, if you didn’t notice the difference between even a fading form of Wilfork and the guys that replaced him then you know nothing about football in the first place.

No one would deny coming off a torn Achilles at his age and size (325 pounds, guffaw) isn’t a significant issue that bears watching. Then again, Wilfork began running well ahead of schedule because, as with everything he’s done since he came here, he put in the work nobody sees to get himself that far along.

Yet the more important fantasy in all this mindless chatter about releasing Wilfork is that somehow that is the best way to create cap space.

Well how about thinking first? How about releasing two guys who have done little or nothing for the Patriots since the day they got here instead? How about whacking Adrian Wilson and Isaac Sopoaga and retaining Wilfork?

The nattering nabobs calling for Wilfork’s head perhaps don’t realize the soon-to-be 35-year-old Wilson’s cap number this year is $1,833,333 and the 33-year-old benched Sopoaga’s is $3,500,000. That’s a combined cap figure of $5,333,333 for a shot safety and a 33-year-old defensive tackle who made two tackles in six games before losing his job to Siliga.

For the record, that’s seven fewer than Wilfork made in four games before being hurt.

So which is the greater saving?

The other discussion is about re-doing Wilfork’s contract to add phantom years, perhaps by guaranteeing his salary and turning it into a bonus or giving him a few more upfront millions, like Tom Brady took a year ago, in exchange for years on the back end that reduce his present-day cap figure.

That’s all well and good if done correctly, but how about doing something about right guard Dan Connolly’s $4,083,334 cap number first?

No disrespect to Connolly, who is a loyal soldier and hard working guy, but if you want to mess with somebody’s money shouldn’t it be Sopoaga, Wilson and Connolly before you get around to slashing Wilfork, who if even moderately healthy will do more for your defense than the first two combined?

If you release Wilfork, you save $7,580,000 in cap money. If you release Wilson, Sopoaga and Connolly you save $5,250,000, a difference of only $2,333,000 that could easily be made up by restructuring Wilfork’s $7.5 million base salary.

So unless you believe he can’t play at all (like Sopoaga and Wilson, for example), it’s obvious who the chattering class should be chattering about releasing, and it’s not Vince Wilfork.


(bostonherald.com)