Patriots to Release Wheatley, Activate Mankins
Shalise Manza Young of the Boston Globe reported on Saturday that the Patriots are going to release defensive back Terrance Wheatley in order to make room for Logan Mankins on the active roster.
Young Tweeted a few minutes ago the following:
"League source says the #Patriots will activate Logan Mankins for tomorrow's game - Terrence Wheatley released to make room on the roster".
Mankins just returned to the team this week and reportedly showed up in shape, passing his conditioning test and looking like he hadn't missed a beat during practice. Belichick had said Friday that he was making progress, but it's likely that not many thought it would be this soon that we'd see him back on the active roster.
“Let’s take it day-to-day here,” Belichick said on Friday. “We had a good day [Thursday] in terms of contact, padded and all that, and see how things are today and take a look at it tomorrow. A lot of times it is the day after or two days after with players who are coming back, whether it’s with injuries or, in this case, he wasn’t here or whatever it happens to be, where the more days or the more time you have, I think the better you feel about the situation – one way or the other, whichever way it goes.
“To bring him onto the roster, we’d have to make a move, so that’s a decision. So I think you take that as long as you can until you make the decision or until you know what the decision is and then make it. But I think you want to make the right one. You don’t want to make a mistake on that, so we’ll see how it goes here.”
It appears he's ready, and that's bad news for Wheatley who is now the odd man out.