Vince Wilfork Wants a New Contract, Hasn't Heard From Patriots in a Year

The New England Patriots' decision to slap the franchise tag on Matt Cassel, guaranteeing almost $15 million to their backup quarterback, means that between Cassel and Tom Brady, about a quarter of the team's entire 2009 salary cap is tied up just in the quarterback position. And that means there's less money for everyone else, as Vince Wilfork is finding out.

Wilfork, the Patriots' enormous nose tackle, is due an $800,000 base salary for 2009, the last season on the contract he signed as the Patriots' first-round pick (21st overall) in 2004. That's a paltry salary for a player of Wilfork's caliber, and he thinks he's due a nice new contract with a nice raise. But he tells the Boston Globe that although the Patriots know he'd like to do a new deal, he hasn't heard anything from them in a year.

Wilfork adds:

"The ball is not in my court right now," said Wilfork, who will carry an $800,000 base salary and a $1.44 million cap charge in 2009. "Nothing has happened. No progress has been made.

"I thought maybe there would be some sort of move forward, but everything is at a standstill. I'm sure they'll do whatever they have to do. I have that last year, and I'm preparing to play and play well. It's not going to change me. But they know the longer it takes the more it costs."

The bottom line is that as long as Wilfork is under contract, he has very little negotiating power with the Patriots. The team can get him for a cut-rate salary this year and then decide next year whether it wants to offer him a long-term deal, or slap the franchise tag on him. The best advice any agent could give to Wilfork is that he should make sure he has the kind of season in 2009 that will make him a hot commodity in 2010.