Connolly got benched?

[Deus Irae]

Mankins puts many positions in risk with his contract demands. If they end up paying him tackle money to be a guard, this will be apparent when a random starters get hurt and completely inept backups playing for the league minimum start blowing plays.

Mankins' salary pales in comparision to Brady's. If you're looking for contracts to hamper signings, you look to the QB. Also, the Patriots don't have a LT getting the huge bucks, so griping about the guard wanting to get paid starting in the uncapped season rather than having to wait another season (according to the agent and Reiss) doesn't make any sense. Also, the Patriots, according to Kraft, were willing to pay Mankins Mangold-like money, so the team doesn't seem to be falling in line with your theory.

i'd say without the deep threat of Moss, the quicker pass plays of 10 yards or less mitigates protection issues to an extent. If they aren't setting up a bomb by TB 12, even bad protection can look OK if the pass occurs quickly enough.

That sure wasn't the case yesterday.

 

[BradyManny]

Similarly, the Chargers’ different treatment of Hernandez than other teams kept them out of sub packages for much of the game, even when Hernandez was used in more of a receiver-like role. Apparently confident in taking a safety away from the deep part of the field to cover Hernandez, the Chargers were able to stay in their base defense, adding pass rushers at the line of scrimmage. This played a part in the first-down sack of Brady by NT Antonio Garay, who beat his former Boston College teammate, center Dan Koppen, on the play.

The Chargers’ eight-in-the-box approach continued to disrupt the Patriots offense, even as it stood only six yards out of the end zone following Ninkovich’s fumble recovery. On second down, the Chargers brought SS Eric Weddle down to cover TE Alge Crumpler, allowing OLB Shaun Phillips to blitz free off the edge and sack Brady after a play-action. The subsequent third-down sack was simple, with LT Matt Light beaten by OLB Antwan Barnes, a surprising castoff from the Ravens and Eagles.

Check out Rodak's Picked Up Pieces for more.

 

[Kontradiction]

LOL at the sudden change of tune in this thread. Mankins needs to be signed and it needs to happen this past summer. He's in his prime, is one of the better guards in the league, played out his rookie contract without complaint, and has never been injured. We're obviously going to start looking at shaking some things up on the O-Line in the offseason and I think that retaining Mankins would be a good move. Connolly played better than expected, but he's a back-up and was one of the reasons why Brady was under assault yesterday. Get Mankins in and do the right thing - give him his contract.

 

[BradyManny]

LOL at the sudden change of tune in this thread. Mankins needs to be signed and it needs to happen this past summer. He's in his prime, is one of the better guards in the league, played out his rookie contract without complaint, and has never been injured. We're obviously going to start looking at shaking some things up on the O-Line in the offseason and I think that retaining Mankins would be a good move. Connolly played better than expected, but he's a back-up and was one of the reasons why Brady was under assault yesterday. Get Mankins in and do the right thing - give him his contract.

I have no problem admitting I was wrong.

I still wouldn't pay Mankins 8 million a year for several years though.

I would've paid Mankins a 1 year of 6+ million if it got him to play for this year, so we could at least use next year's draft to get a replacement. I still don't know why that never became an option.

But I'll gladly have him back at the prorated tender rate once he signs up.

 

[Kontradiction]

I have no problem admitting I was wrong.

I still wouldn't pay Mankins 8 million a year for several years though.

I would've paid Mankins a 1 year of 6+ million if it got him to play for this year, so we could at least use next year's draft to get a replacement. I still don't know why that never became an option.

But I'll gladly have him back at the prorated tender rate once he signs up.

$8M/year would be the absolute maximum I would pay him. As for the options, the only people who know what they actually were are the team, Mankins, and his agent. Aside from that, none of us know for certain what was offered and what was turned down.

As I said before, this quarterback's kryptonite is pressure up the middle. I don't see how signing Mankins DOESN'T make sense.

 

[BradyManny]

As I said before, this quarterback's kryptonite is pressure up the middle. I don't see how signing Mankins DOESN'T make sense.

To the naked eye, Connolly has performed very well this year. I think what Deus has been saying all along - that they've asked less of Connolly than they would of Mankins, and hid him in scheme a little - has some truth to it.

It's possible Connolly didn't match up well with the Chargers pass rushers, specifically.

Either way, he and Light were a pretty atrocious combo on the left yesterday. We're lucky we won with that kind of line play.

As for Mankins - it comes down to $$. I'm just not sure you can afford to pay him 6, 7, or 8 million for the next 5 years. Overall, I would say Connolly is better value so far this season, in spite of how awful yesterday's OL performance was. Ideally, we draft someone in rounds 1 or 2 yesterday who can play somewhere in between Connolly and Mankins' levels of play and at a good price.

Again, part of it - for me - comes back to the fact that Mankins might've been the worst player on the field for the Patriots on February 3rd, 2008. If he wants the big bucks, he's gotta play in the big games.

 

[NYCPatsFan]

To the naked eye, Connolly has performed very well this year. I think what Deus has been saying all along - that they've asked less of Connolly than they would of Mankins, and hid him in scheme a little - has some truth to it.

It's possible Connolly didn't match up well with the Chargers pass rushers, specifically.

Either way, he and Light were a pretty atrocious combo on the left yesterday. We're not going to win many games with that kind of line play.

Agree, which is why I would like to wait for a couple of more games to see if other defenses expose how bad they are and/or if Connolly has significant weakness.

 

[BradyManny]

Agree, which is why I would like to wait for a couple of more games to see if other defenses expose how bad they are and/or if Connolly has significant weakness.

There's no denying SD has talented pass rushers. Connolly and Light have been fine against lesser competition this season. The problem is, we'll face elite pass rushers come playoff time. Same goes for Mankins though - as I said, he choked more than anybody in SB42.

 

[WhiteWesWelker88]

Mankins' salary pales in comparision to Brady's. If you're looking for contracts to hamper signings, you look to the QB. Also, the Patriots don't have a LT getting the huge bucks, so griping about the guard wanting to get paid starting in the uncapped season rather than having to wait another season (according to the agent and Reiss) doesn't make any sense. Also, the Patriots, according to Kraft, were willing to pay Mankins Mangold-like money, so the team doesn't seem to be falling in line with your theory.



That sure wasn't the case yesterday.

Mankins does not deserve Jahri Evans $$$$$


Jahri is an overpaid ****. G's dont get big contracts..... and shouldn't.

 

[Deus Irae]

Mankins does not deserve Jahri Evans $$$$$


Jahri is an overpaid ****. G's dont get big contracts..... and shouldn't.

Your opinion on the number value of positional worth is one you're welcome to have. The NFL owners seem to take a different approach than do you. They seem to be willing to pay $7 million plus for top 5 guards.

Mankins is a top 5 guard.

 

[Kontradiction]

To the naked eye, Connolly has performed very well this year. I think what Deus has been saying all along - that they've asked less of Connolly than they would of Mankins, and hid him in scheme a little - has some truth to it.

I think that's exactly it.

It's possible Connolly didn't match up well with the Chargers pass rushers, specifically.

Either way, he and Light were a pretty atrocious combo on the left yesterday. We're lucky we won with that kind of line play.

With Light, you're going to get at least one or two awful games per year out of him. I've made peace with that fact on top of the fact that, for the most part, he's still a pretty solid LT. However, the left side and up the middle were particularly bad yesterday. I have every reason in the world to believe that better play at LG could have helped out both of those areas in San Diego.

As for Mankins - it comes down to $$. I'm just not sure you can afford to pay him 6, 7, or 8 million for the next 5 years. Overall, I would say Connolly is better value so far this season, in spite of how awful yesterday's OL performance was. Ideally, we draft someone in rounds 1 or 2 yesterday who can play somewhere in between Connolly and Mankins' levels of play and at a good price.

With Moss gone, a lot of money is available for us to use. We could easily offer Mankins a contract that pays him $7M/year and still be able to sign draft picks and free agents. Like I said before, Mankins is a top flight guard and, with Vollmer looking to move over to the left side of the line, he would help at both the LT and C positions (being that I think we're replacing Koppen with a rookie in 2011). On top of that, signing Mankins takes some of the pressure off of the draft and makes it so that we only have to draft high for one position on the O-Line.

Again, part of it - for me - comes back to the fact that Mankins might've been the worst player on the field for the Patriots on February 3rd, 2008. If he wants the big bucks, he's gotta play in the big games.

If you go by that logic, the entire O-Line should have been issued their walking papers after that game.

 

[patsfan-1982]

Mankins does not deserve Jahri Evans $$$$$


Jahri is an overpaid ****. G's dont get big contracts..... and shouldn't.

i don't know who is or is not overpaid but from what we heard the pats have offerd him 6 or 6.1/2 million he wants 7.1/2 to 8 million witch is more about the up front money that dose not relly hit the CAP next year,


i ask you this is it not worth 1.1/2 to 2 million more to plug a hole ( that will get exposed come play time ) with a all pro player ?

 

[Synovia]

I was watching the game with company and was not listening to Nantz/Simms all that much, so I don't know if they pointed this out. But I did not notice it at the time:

Big struggle for Patriots' offense - New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston



....... Maybe I was premature in my assumption we wouldn't miss Moss' deep threat that much....

What good would Moss have been if Brady didn't even have time to throw intermediate routes?

More intermediate routes and short routes would have been open. People seem to forget real quickly (and it was pretty clear in the Vikings game) that even when Moss isn't catching passes, hes opening things up underneath.

 

[JackBauer]

We could easily offer Mankins a contract that pays him $7M/year and still be able to sign draft picks and free agents.

I thought they offered him that already? The rumor was that the offer was Mangold-type money, which would be around 8 mm per.

The more I think about, the smarter I think it would be to resign Mankins, if possible. They already need a new OC and perhaps a new OT. Best not to create more holes unless it's totally necessary.

edit: Guess I should have read the rest of your post before replying, since I basically just repeated what you already wrote.

 

[TomPatriot]

I can tell you he missed the block on Applewhite on the famous 4th and one. .

I think it was 61, Neal, not Connolly.

 

[Kontradiction]

I thought they offered him that already? The rumor was that the offer was Mangold-type money, which would be around 8 mm per.

There's a key word there. Can you guess what it is?

 

[JackBauer]

There's a key word there. Can you guess what it is?

Well I dunno, Deus has posited the figure pretty frequently. I have no idea where it originated.

 

[Kontradiction]

Well I dunno, Deus has posited the figure pretty frequently. I have no idea where it originated.

AFAIK, there's no concrete evidence of that. The team stated that the offer was somewhere in that range (which, honestly, could be anywhere from $7-8M) while Mankins' camp refuted that with some authority.

 

[Deus Irae]

AFAIK, there's no concrete evidence of that. The team stated that the offer was somewhere in that range (which, honestly, could be anywhere from $7-8M) while Mankins' camp refuted that with some authority.

The agent denied the accuracy of the numbers on the first rumored deal (offer of $7 million). Reiss reported that what was happening was that the Patriots were insisting on keeping this RFA season money as part of the deal, which would explain the difference between the rumored offer amount and the amount the agent was claiming.

According to Kraft's later interview (the one after Schefter's report about the public apology), the Patriots made an offer that was on par with the Mangold deal during that later round of negotiations.

How much of this is accurate is a question for history.

 

[NYCPatsFan]

I know BB doesn't mix the contract part with the player's skills (eg Law), but in this case will the he/FO sign someone who basically called the owner a liar in public and tried to embarass him further?