Adam Schefter suggests possibility that Wilfork stays with Patriots

The big news of yesterday was that Vince Wilfork apparently asked the New England Patriots to release him.

The 32 year old nose tackle is owed upwards of $11 million for this season and, as expected, the Patriots were looking to restructure or extend the player to lower that cap hit.

So, when a player asks for release, we can just assume he's gone right? Maybe not.

Adam Schefter appeared on ESPN's Mike & Mike radio show this morning, and had this to share on Wilfork:

“So you get into these situations where the agent’s got to figure out the player’s value. He’s got to call around and say ‘Hey what’s Vince Wilfork worth to you on the open market? If he were to be free what would you be willing to pay him.’ You get a general idea of what your client would be worth on the open market.”

Schefter explained that Wilfork’s agent would compare the feedback he got from other teams to the restructured deal the Patriots are offering and decide from there the preferred route.

“Right now they’re in a standoff,” Schefter said. “The way it was described to me last night, it’s probably best for Vince Wilfork just to take a step back and we’ll see how the situation plays out. It’s not like we’re going to get an answer on this today. ... This is something that is its own negotiation even though he’s under contract.”

So, all of that suggests that maybe Wilfork could indeed stay with the Patriots on a restructured deal. Certainly, it would be understandable for him to be insulted about being asked to take less money after suffering an injury in the line of duty. However, there is no doubt the Patriots would've approached him about the exact same thing whether he was injured or not. There was no way they wanted to commit to paying him $11 million this year.

Also, would it make any sense for Wilfork to refuse to take a paycut with the Patriots and then take an even bigger pay cut on the open market? There's pride and then there's losing millions of dollars.

It appears that this situation is still fluid, so don't book Wilfork as a non-Patriot quite yet.