Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com takes a closer look at RB Joseph Addai's one-year deal with the New England Patriots.  Noting that Addai's deal was not signed at the veterans minimum salary, Reiss believes that the contract may reflect the Patriots plan for Addai to be on the 53-man roster.  A roster bonus in his contract will allow Addai to earn more if he's on the team and contributing.  "The feeling here is that Addai will ultimately make the club, and this will turn out to be a good deal for him, but this contract reflects there is a minor level of uncertainty about him making the cut," writes Reiss.

**Shalise Manza Young** of The Boston Globe gives her opinion on Wes Welker signing his $9.515 million franchise tender yesterday.  She writes that the Patriots incentive to try and get a deal done is "pretty much gone" now that Welker has decided not to hold out.  "The team has the space under the salary cap to carry the full $9.515 million, and can franchise him again next year, though at a cost of over $10 million," writes Manza Young. "However, Welker did come back from his ACL surgery in early 2010 very quickly, has been underpaid for several seasons, and is a trusted target for Tom Brady, which could help him get what he wants."

**Karen Guregian** of The Boston Herald writes that Patriots WR Julian Edelman and DB Devin McCourty both commented on Wes Welker signing his franchise tender yesterday while meeting with patients at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.  "It says he's a great teammate. He wants to get back with the team," said Edelman. "I'm sure he's excited to come back and train with us. I'm excited to have him back, to learn from him, work with him. It's going to be great to have him back." McCourty added, "It just shows he puts the team first. He cares about being here. It'll be good to see Wes back in the locker room."

**Tom E. Curran** of CSNNE.com writes that Tom Brady has been working on his throwing fundamentals with former Red Sox pitcher Tom House in California.  Brady has been known to work extensively on his mechanics during the offseason, most famously with the late Tom Martinez.  The Patriots quarterback has now been working at the Rod Dedeaux Research and Baseball Institute at USC during a week-long evaluation by House.  "What we do here is a high-tech tune-up," House told The Herald's Karen Guregian. "I'm not a quarterback coach. I'm not a conditioning coach. What we do is assess human movement efficiencies, throwing, then we look for weak links (stability, mobility, flexibility)...it's like tuning up a Ferrari."  Curran writes that Tom Brady will go down as one of the most fundamentally clean quarterbacks to ever play.  "There were a couple things with [Brady's] kinematic sequence, which is basically legs, his delivering hips, delivering shoulders, delivering arm, that the camera said there might be room for improvement," House also told Guregian. "And then, in the strength assessment, he had a couple things on his posterior side. But he's fine. He can be whatever he is for as long as he wants to be. But we just picked up a couple of small things on the shoulder. That was pretty much the extent of it."