I would never question the FO. However, it APPEARS that in the Branch case, the team did EXACTLY what I suggested. Then when Branch's agent brought in a deal that was consistent with what the patriots had indicated, the patriots turned around and said that this was not enough. A grievance was filed and was sustained. Patriots fans of course know that it was Branch and his agent that were in the wrong. The patriots would NEVER say one thing and then do another.
The patriots COULD go down this road again, but only if they are willing to state what they will accept in trade, and then to actually accept the trade when offered. I suspect that you ar correct and that the patriots will not go sdown this road.
Actually, the Pats response to Branch was they never authorized him to negotiate a trade because they had no intention of trading him. The Pats allowed Branch to go out there to find out his market value, not to seek a trade. The strategy was that the Pats felt Branch was being unreasonable with his contract demands and if he saw that he couldn't get what he wanted elsewhere, he would resign with the Pats. The Pats had no intention of trading him. The whole thing just blew up in their face.
Fact of the matter, Mankins had two months to shop himself between the start of free agency and a week before the draft. Anyone could have signed him for a first and third. Anyone could have agreed to a deal with him and then try to trade for him. Mankins had no takers.
There is absolutely no chance the Pats allow Mankins to go out and try to negotiate his own trade. Not in a million years. They might do it themselves where they negotiate a trade in principle and then give that team permission to negotiate with Mankins, but they will never ever allow another player to negotiate himself like Branch did.
BTW, the greivance was never resolved. Tagliabue stepped in and forced the Pats to trade him to Seattle (reports were he pressured Seattle to give up a first rather than a second). The league was afraid that Branch would set a prescidence and allow any player to go out an negotiate trades while under contract.
If the Pats were to do it again, no way would Goodell back them to get good trade value. If the Jets offer him a contract (and since they have LG issues they will) and Mankins accept it and they lowball in a trade, there would be a very good chance that Goodell would force the Pats to honor it even if it was only for a late round pick. He isn't going to do the Pats any favors especially when they did it before and it blew up in their face.
The Pats were wrong in the Branch situation, but it isn't that the Pats were two faced with Branch. It was because they misjudged the situation and thought they had Branch over a barrell and they were going to force his hand to get him to sign his contract and get into camp. It was a rare huge miscalculation by the Pats' front office. Probably their stupidest mistake of the Belichick era.