Aggravated With Logan Mankins Trade
August 27th, 2014
Boy, Joe doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry or just pity the poor folks who live in Boston. It seems the Logan Mankins trade to the Bucs has made their lives even more bitter.
Forget their beloved BlowSux are out of the pennant race. Forget the fact that after this weekend, they have winter staring them straight in the face. Nevermind the taxes they have to cough up. Ignore they are trapped in a non-basketball association town.
Now, their best Patriots offensive lineman is gone. Gone to the Bucs. Eric Wilbur of the Boston Globe is just plain angry about it, thinking Bucs general manager Jason Licht swindled Bill Belicheat.
“[Tim Wright] also finished second on the Bucs in receiving yards (571) and touchdowns (five) after switching from receiver to tight end during his rookie year last year. Finishing second in anything on the Bucs is sort of like getting a new puppy for straight C’s, but nevertheless…
There is also this: According to Football Outsiders, Wright finished sixth among all tight ends last season in DYAR (Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement), using a formula similar to a player’s WAR in baseball. Wright had a DYAR of 133, only one point shy of Jason Witten, and only two points behind Tony Gonzalez. Vernon Davis (199), Julius Thomas (214) and Jimmy Graham (223) represented the top three in the NFL. Gronkowski’s 91 was 11th in limited playing time before injury. He led the league in 2011 with a 459 DYAR, far and away the highest number in the NFL that season. But since Belichick probably treats DYAR and the like as if somebody just asked him to comment on soccer (yes, this happened on Tuesday), it’s highly doubtful that Belichick just “Moneyballed” the Buccaneers by taking on an underappreciated value, even at the cost of Mankins. Belichick is smart, but odds are he doesn’t have the slightest care for football sabermetrics. All he knows is this kid went to Rutgers and that is enough.
Granted, the Patriots’ first-round pick in 2005 was never the same beast that he was prior to holding out in 2010, then signing a six-year deal the following summer. But to label him a “parking cone” as one Twitter follower put it, in big games, and saying he’s “choked in two Super Bowls” is painting the cow a bit too brightly. Because if Mankins was “choking” against the Giants in 2012, that might mean that Brady had only a certain amount of time to get a pass off to one Wes Welker, one that he may have rushed, resulting in his receiver being played as the unfairly-criticized scapegoat. You can walk down that road if you want to, just be prepared. There will be name-calling.”
It is odd reading the Boston pundits. It seems Belicheat has a fetish for Rutgers. The Boston folks grumble about Belicheat’s boner for Rutgers players the way Bucs fans kvetched over former commander Greg Schiano’s fondness for his former Rutgers players.
Time will tell if Mankins is just a two- or three-year rental or if Wright blows up as one of Tom Brady’s favorite targets. For now, it seems like the Bucs came out way ahead of the game.
August 27th, 2014 at 9:02 am
Seems like win/win to me. They’re underrating Wright, but we overpayed for an agin lineman because of the huge need. I think it was a great trade for both sides.
August 27th, 2014 at 9:02 am
agin=aging
August 27th, 2014 at 9:07 am
I think that Pats fans remember and did not like the last TE that they traded from the Bucs ( Alex Smith).
August 27th, 2014 at 9:07 am
It is a win win.Go read a Patriots blog and see what the fans think. They think its a great trade and the Bucs got fleeced.
August 27th, 2014 at 9:09 am
“Finishing second in anything on the Bucs is sort of like getting a new puppy for straight C’s, but nevertheless…”
Had to laugh
August 27th, 2014 at 9:13 am
Top OL can play to 35 years old, and Mankins is tough and durable. Good pick up. Wright can’t block! We have better TEs. We got the best of this trade!
August 27th, 2014 at 9:23 am
I like the trade, but don’t think we had to give up a 4th round pick too.
August 27th, 2014 at 9:30 am
Remember o-line play well into their late 30s & are still B+ type players…don’t forget he can teach the young guards how to be a pro & how to play the game…a mentor to the younger guards who will replace him one day!
August 27th, 2014 at 9:32 am
This also opens the door for our best TE ASJ
to blow up this yr!…this trade was made b/c of how great he’s looked since he got here!
August 27th, 2014 at 9:34 am
nothing more irritating than typing up a long post only to have the page stop responding.
good reporting joe…..but damn man upgrade the server, fix the ads…do somethin’
August 27th, 2014 at 9:47 am
I could see Mankins playing at a high level another 2 years, maybe 3. At some point his annual salary vs. production will come into play. He’s no spring chicken but he does have that “it” factor that some lineman possess, the ability to play the game at a high level far longer than most of their peers. If Lovie and Licht use the same formula they used for evaluating Davin Joseph, it would seem Mankins could be deemed as too expensive with declining skills. 2 or 3 years with Mankins is a lot better than 2 or 3 years without him.
August 27th, 2014 at 9:48 am
Well one thing Boston and Tampa have in common is the local sports media is pretty irrational and trollish. The whole article reeks of an attempt to draw page views. The Patriots have made the playoffs 10 of the last 13 years, so yeah, I’d trust Bill too. I think we’d all kill for 10 of 13 years in the playoffs.
August 27th, 2014 at 9:50 am
could be a good trade in that both teams end up better off. I liked Wright as maybe a great player someday, but he probably wasn’t going to do much here this year. The Bucs sorely needed a quality guard of course.
August 27th, 2014 at 10:02 am
Mankins is on a rapid decline. Gave up 10 sacks last year after giving up 9 in the five years before that. Plus he is probably unhappy to be here which won’t help his play at all. I’m willing to bet he retires by the end of 2015, probably mailing it in by mid season. The only way he sticks around is if we are on a Super Bowl run.
August 27th, 2014 at 10:05 am
Like I said before, if the Bucs get two productive seasons out of Mankins the Bucs got the better end of the trade.
August 27th, 2014 at 10:07 am
I don’t see why Pats fans are so upset over this? I happy to have Logan but to get a guard who is due about 7 million next couple years on the down side of his career is not a spectacular thing. I hope we can restructure his contract next year.
August 27th, 2014 at 10:08 am
* I would be happy*
August 27th, 2014 at 10:14 am
Mankins is unlikely to ‘mail it in’ and retire leaving 10 million on the table.
August 27th, 2014 at 10:35 am
LOVE the news, been posting and reading on this for 24 hours but…
we do have a game tomorrow against Washington that guys are playing for jobs.
just sayin’
August 27th, 2014 at 10:41 am
Aren’t the Patriots paying some of his salary? I could have sworn Licht stated during his presser that the 4th rounder is what is being reported. That led me to believe that maybe it is a conditional 4th round pick.
August 27th, 2014 at 10:52 am
So what everyone is failing to realize is this…. Bill Belicheat is running a minor league football program out of Rutgers. Everyone in the know is in on it. Players get recruited with the line that this is a consistent pipeline into the NFL. So good players have been going to Rutgers because of this know pipeline.
Belicheat gets to meet with and advise the Rutger staff.
Perfect setup.
August 27th, 2014 at 10:55 am
“Mankins is on a rapid decline. Gave up 10 sacks last year after giving up 9 in the five years before that. Plus he is probably unhappy to be here which won’t help his play at all. ”
WOW, a 10% decline! that IS a rapid and massive decline, indeed. And he’s OBVIOUSLY gonna hate the beaches , sun, and lack of an income tax here in Tampa. People like & dislike an area for many reasons, and to assume he’s gonna be pissed off is a stretch, to say the least. To me, he seems to be too much a professional to let this trade affect his livelihood .
August 27th, 2014 at 10:58 am
“So good players have been going to Rutgers because of this know pipeline.”
So, with this in mind, how do you explain Rutgers stellar record? Sure Schiano improved it, but it was never a threat to break into the big time. Weak
August 27th, 2014 at 12:35 pm
Fritz50,
9 sacks over 5 seasons vs. 10 sacks in a single season is not 10% closer to 550%.
August 27th, 2014 at 1:05 pm
@Robert9
I have absolutely no problems with the website ever from a technical stand point. The videos load smoothly and even the ads aren’t too bad. Changing your personal browsing settings can help.
August 27th, 2014 at 1:06 pm
NFL ready players does not equal winning bowls and conferences in college football.
See the University of California.
Also, and I am not claiming that the talent recruited at Rutgers is equal to the SEC, but when you look at the SEC, they consistently have teams with losing records have guys get drafted.
Winning in college does not equal NFL ready individual players.
August 27th, 2014 at 1:13 pm
My only concern is whether Mankins will still want to play into his late 30s now that hes out of New England and away from his buddies. I wouldnt be surprised if there is some kind of hold out in the future.
August 27th, 2014 at 5:18 pm
Florida sun and weather will add a few years to his career. Trust me, you feel every bit past your age when the temperature dips into single digits. What also helps is that the contract he signed, the entire bonus has already been paid by the Pats, so the Bucs are just on the hook for his base salary, which is steep but if he doesn’t play well we part ways with no penalty.