Kraft addressed the ongoing Welker contract situation, a situation that reached at least a temporary resolution last week when Welker signed his franchise tender. That puts him in the fold for at least this season — for a cool $9.5 million — but Kraft is still hopeful they come to terms on a long-term deal.
"Well we'd like to see him be a Patriot for life but it takes two sides," Kraft told the NFL Network on 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."
The two sides have said that they'd like to get a long-term deal done, but by all indications, they've yet to come close. Welker told the Boston Herald last week that the talks had "gotten worse," but he quickly backpedaled, insisting over the weekend that he wasn't frustrated with the process.
Kraft also addressed some of those things when talking with NFL Network.
"Anyone can say whatever they want,' he said. "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."
Welker was expected to be on the field for OTAs which began Monday for the Patriots.
