Mankins Wants To Be Traded

You've probably already heard about it. It's all over the internet and news of the sports world this morning. Logan Mankins has said that he wants to be traded. No longer wants to be a Patriot. I know that we've seen this before with plenty of Patriots, and it hasn't caused problems. But I get a different feel about this one. According to ESPN's report of it, the Patriots offered Mankins around $7 million a year, which is about 20% lower than the league's highest paid offensive lineman (Evans, NO, $8 million / year). If Mankins really turned this down and said he deserves more, then I've lost a lot of respect for him. The offensive line hasn't been top notch since our undefeated season. We can never run the ball because our run blocking is God awful. And while Mankins is probably our best lineman and he may be worthy of a raise from the $3.26 million he's due this year, he's not worth being the top paid in the NFL. And, growing up through the Patriots' system, you would have thought guys like Logan would have adapted to the win-first mentality that sometimes means passing up slight improvements in salary to play for a winning program. Oh well, though. I guess Mankins has lost that edge from our Super Bowl drought. I still can't believe we haven't won it since the 2004 season.