Are we going to argue this all year? The people who hated the trade did victory laps after the KC game where the o-line did not perform great in a blow out (although wasn't nearly as bad as people made it). The people who defend the trade are now doing victory laps after the o-line played well vs. the Bengals and Mankins played like crap this past week.
I will say this, the Bucs are losers in this trade. They traded away future value to get better this year in a year their team is bad and have little shot to make the playoffs with or without Mankins. Teams like the Bucs should never make a trade like this because it provides no real benefit.
Time will tell if the trade works out for the Pats. If what we saw from Wright last week is a preview for what we will see for the rest of the season, it is big win for the Pats both short term and long term. That is even before the fourth round pick. If Wright averages 5 catches for 85 yards the rest of the way he will have 64 catches for 1055 yards for the season even after the slow start. I would assume it would be too much to expect he would average a TD a game the rest of the season, but he could have six or seven TDs by the end of the season.
Otherwise, all this arguing about Mankins is useless. He is gone. The Pats have to use what they have for better or worse. We should all just root for Wright to build on his last week performance and hope by the end of the year the Bucs fans are all complaining that the Bucs traded away Wright and a fourth for Mankins.
