Patriots re-sign Sebastian Vollmer *UPDATED*

ESPN Boston's Field Yates and the Boston Herald's Karen Guregian reported that the Patriots had re-signed their top remaining free agent Sebastian Vollmer. This morning Shalise Manza Young at the Boston Globe reported that although a deal was still likely, there is currently no deal in place.

Offensive Lineman is probably one of the most difficult positions to evaluate from a pure numbers perspective. You really only hear about an offensive lineman when something goes wrong. If they commit a holding penalty you notice them. If they get burned for a sack you notice them. If they throw a well executed block that prevents a sack and gives the quarterback extra time to find an open receiver it typically goes unnoticed and the credit is largely given to the quarterback and the receiver for the success of the play. Some people like to judge the effectiveness of an offensive lineman by sack totals, but that's a deceptive stat. Who says that he was the one who blew his blocking assignment? Maybe the quarterback held the ball too long. Maybe the wide receiver didn't create the separation he needed so the quarterback had to hold the ball. Some quarterbacks have great mobility and pocket presence, some don't, is that the lineman's fault? Basically, the success or failure of an offensive lineman is often evaluated by the success or failure of the offense as a whole because their individual contribution is difficult to quantify. Sometimes you can get into some of the advanced metrics like blocking efficiency to get an idea, but it's just a really tough thing to judge. As a result, I don't really know how good or bad of a lineman Sebastian Vollmer is. The Patriots offense is successful, Tom Brady doesn't get sacked very often and I don't see him getting beat for sacks or holding penalties regularly; so I'm inclined to think that he's good at his job. Most of the advanced metrics seem to concur that he's a solid offensive lineman. He's had some injury issues to deal with in his career. His back has kept him out of games in the past and he recently had a right knee arthroscopy. These injuries have reportedly hurt his value on the open market. If the price is right I absolutely want the Patriots to bring him back on board for a few more seasons. We'll see how this situation plays out.

UPDATE:
From the Globe:

The deal that was inevitable between the Patriots and offensive tackle Sebastian Vollmer happened Monday, as the sides agreed to a four-year contract.

According to a league source, the contract’s base value is $17 million, of which $8.5 million is guaranteed. It has a maximum value of $27 million, with Vollmer able to gain the rest of the money through incentives, roster bonuses, and Pro Bowl berths.

So about $4.25M-$6.25M per year? Looking around at some of the other deals given to the top offensive tackles on the market this deal doesn't look too bad. Jake Long's deal with the Rams set the market at 4 years, $34M total/$16M guaranteed. Gosder Cherilus signed a five-year deal worth $35M total/$16.5M guaranteed. Basically, if he can stay healthy and meet his performance bonuses it will put him in Gosder Cherilus' pay grade. If he doesn't then the Patriots don't have too much liability in terms of guaranteed money. Seems like a pretty fair deal all around.