Could Mankins(or VJ) abandon the team once the playoffs start?

[BradyFTW!]

I like this question! I don't know what the answer is.

From everything I've heard, it sounds like a player could bail before the playoffs and still accrue one season.

However, bailing before the playoffs would probably kill any and all free agent value that a player has.

I want that to be true, but I'm not totally sure that it is. If guys like T.O. and Albert Haynesworth can be attractive as FAs, even though they're a toxic presence and a contract year warrior respectively, then I bet that at least one or two teams would talk themselves into paying big bucks for one of these guys even if they did quit before the playoffs. You could just as well make the case that they've already quit on their teams, and at least in Mankins' case the team has been just fine without him.

 

[Armchair Quarterback]

A player is under contract through the last day of the NFL calender and that includes the playoffs, so the answer is no a player could not do that without being in violation of his contract.