but that is too narrow a view of how Brady may feel about it, unless Brady is completely without emotion and is a strictly pragmatic robot like Belichick. one, it fails to consider that Mankins may have just had a bad season. I don't follow him, but is this a pattern of continual decline or a statistical anomaly? you would know better than I. secondly, it ignores the possibility that Brady trusts him and is more comfortable having a known commodity blocking for him, who has been extremely successful for seasons, rather than simply believing that Mankins is done based on last season's performance alone and is happy, or even just content, being rid of him. I think familiarity with Mankins likely brought some level of comfort and confidence to Brady.
Brady isn't happy; http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/08/27/report-tom-brady-very-upset-about-logan-mankins-trade/
It's typical Belichick. Getting rid of a player while he's still good but not as good as his contract. Plus the Patriots might have younger and cheaper OLs who are a bargain compared to Mankins. They've done this many times. Logan had a big cap on him for this season and the Bucs needed and experience player and had the money and the space. You can't help but to think the next out the door will be Woolfork.
Brady signed a guaranteed contract at a lower annual salary but still something like 50 mil guranteed.
Just hope they have a plan here... I'm taking it on faith that they'll use the cap space they freed up to sign McCourty or Revis long-term, etc. Mankins was still playing at an above-average level but it's his presence and leadership that they'll have a hard time replacing. Simple case of a guy playing well enough but not to the level of his contract. Tim Wright caught 50+ balls in Tampa last year. He played a lot of snaps in the Patriots' final preseason game only a couple of days after the deal. He could be a steady contributor... wouldn't dismiss the possibility of that.
This sounds like it was a good trade for the Pats, unfortunately. We shall see if that really is the case when we see how the OL does without Mankins.
The Pats defense stopped being a strength when they traded Richard Seymour, going from 10th in yards his last season to mid 20's within a couple of seasons and staying there. Not saying Mankins absence will hurt offensive performance the way Seymour's absence hurt the defense but I don't think I'd have made this trade with a 37 year old QB in his last couple of seasons.
There's no question that the trade made the line weaker in 2014. Just a question of what the drop-off is from Mankins to whoever replaces him. I don't think Belichick considers how much time Brady has left, whether he should or not... I just don't think that factors in with him. He's always looking long-term.
Heard something last night... if I can find it I'll post. The Pats were offering Connolly and his $3mil salary for Wright, but the Bucs were having none of that. Mankins name came up and when the Bucs were willing to throw in the 4th round pick they had a deal. Pats were definitely looking to lower their cap number one way of another. Mankins basically refused to renegotiate, or at least to the extent the Pats wanted him to. So he then became trade fodder.
I'd like to see that link, I follow nearly every Patriot's writer which post nearly ever rumor they even pretend they heard and have no seen anything implying that, I may have missed it, but yeah.
