If Mankins doesn't play for us this year, we need a starting guard. Could it be that simple? Or are you all fine with Connolly and Wendell?
Belichick might prefer to start Pouncey at OG instead of having one more year of mankins at $10M. Even we keep Mankins for a year, Pouncy can compete with COnnolly for the other starting position.
The open question is the value of Pouncey to the patriots over Connolly or Wendell, compared ot the value of other options at 17 and other guards that could be had later.
My guess is that there will be more valuable options at 17, but I certainly wouldn't be shocked at all.
If Mankins doesn't play for NE:
-- He's either a Free Agent under a court order.
-- He's holding out (unlikely given the financial implications).
-- His agent found someone who was willing to sign him and cough up significant draft pickage for him.
If Mankins is a Free Agent under a court order, it implies there is a free agency of a sort, NE will find suitable veterans to compete with Kaczur, Connolly, Wendell, Austin, and any draft picks.
If he's holding out NE still has four prospects competing for the OG slots, which doesn't account for LeVoir who was a starting LG for Notre Dame or Maneri who currently has no position. And that's not to say Crumpler might not bulk up to 290-300 and kick inside.
If his agent finds Mankins a new home, NE will have more picks to work with at the top of the draft and that there's trades and free agency for acquiring players.
If you look at Pouncey and compare him to prior OL acquired by NE under Belichick, he compares to prospects drafted in rounds 4-7 of the draft. Veterans with his background were drafted in the third round or later as rookies and had several years of starting experience by the time NE signed them.
Look at Watkins and you find some parallel with Kaczur, a comp pick in the third, but in many other ways he's more like a Day Three prospect.
If we look at apparent athleticism and player history, Ijalana offers the strongest parallel with NE's past high round draft interests. The biggest knock on him is his FCS level competition; and that is a major hurdle as NE under Belichick has never drafted an OL below the FBS level (factor Coach Scarnecchia into that decision making process too). Small school players like Connolly came to NE as free agents and developed for a season on the PSquad. There have been two regular starters who did not play football at an FBS level: Neal (World Class Athlete) and Andruzzi.
If you look at the athleticism demonstrated by the DL at this year's Combine, you get an idea why Scar and BB want really athletic OL when they are looking for starters. NE wants guys strong and quick enough to fight in a phone booth with Haloti Ngata and Kevin Williams, and fast and quick enough to match-up against a Julius Peppers and Ray Lewis on the edge and at the next level. This is why all the angst over Koppen, or why Neal was kept around with his injury history, or why the idea of just getting rid of Mankins doesn't get a lot of traction inside Gillette.
