Retain Donald Thomas

[Brady6]

Thomas is 27 years old and was dominate at times last year. He likely still has his best football infront of him too.

If we retained him we could do a number of things.

Option 1 - Trade Mankins (cap hit $10m) and have him agree to restructure to clear his cap number from our space. He is a superior player to Thomas but is also 5 years older and coming off back to back injury filled seasons.

Option 2 - Cut Dan Connolly and his $3.33m cap hit, it would clear $1.2m in immediate savings and $2.2m in dead money. IMO Thomas is a superior player to Connolly at this point and is also 4.5 years younger.

Option 3 - Keep all 3 spend the extra money. Mankins and Connolly both missed games last year and protecting Brady should be priority #1.

Either way IMO Thomas should be someone we bring back. He has value

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Thomas is 27 years old and was dominate at times last year. He likely still has his best football infront of him too.

[pedant]Dominate is a verb. Dominant is an adjective.[/pedant]

If we retained him we could do a number of things.

Option 1 - Trade Mankins (cap hit $10m) and have him agree to restructure to clear his cap number from our space. He is a superior player to Thomas but is also 5 years older and coming off back to back injury filled seasons.

His $4M signing bonus is immovable, and the remaining $8M will accelerate into 2013 and/or 2014 if he is traded. Once prorated signing bonus hits a cap, it's on for good.

And how about instead of cutting Connolly, the Pats could play Thomas at guard and move Connolly to center.

 

[Sciz]

Retain him at what price? If he gets starting guard money, do you pay him that to be your backup?

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Thomas is 27 years old and was dominate at times last year. He likely still has his best football infront of him too.

If we retained him we could do a number of things.

Option 1 - Trade Mankins (cap hit $10m) and have him agree to restructure to clear his cap number from our space. He is a superior player to Thomas but is also 5 years older and coming off back to back injury filled seasons.

Option 2 - Cut Dan Connolly and his $3.33m cap hit, it would clear $1.2m in immediate savings and $2.2m in dead money. IMO Thomas is a superior player to Connolly at this point and is also 4.5 years younger.

Option 3 - Keep all 3 spend the extra money. Mankins and Connolly both missed games last year and protecting Brady should be priority #1.

Either way IMO Thomas should be someone we bring back. He has value

Mrs Thomas listens to "cap is crap" Felger too much as she ignores the brutal cap hit from trading Mankins, never mind the drop off in talent. Restructuring Mankins is a saner approach.

 

[ALP]

So our Oline is pretty old I just realized

 

[NE_PATS_FAN_54]

Thomas is 27 years old and was dominate at times last year. He likely still has his best football infront of him too.

If we retained him we could do a number of things.

Option 1 - Trade Mankins (cap hit $10m) and have him agree to restructure to clear his cap number from our space. He is a superior player to Thomas but is also 5 years older and coming off back to back injury filled seasons.

Option 2 - Cut Dan Connolly and his $3.33m cap hit, it would clear $1.2m in immediate savings and $2.2m in dead money. IMO Thomas is a superior player to Connolly at this point and is also 4.5 years younger.

Option 3 - Keep all 3 spend the extra money. Mankins and Connolly both missed games last year and protecting Brady should be priority #1.

Either way IMO Thomas should be someone we bring back. He has value

Thomas is going to more valuable to another team looking for a starting guard than the Pats. Truth is, he isn't a hard player to replace. As long as Scarnecchia is there, o-line is the least of my worries for the team.

 

[DocHoliday]

[pedant]Dominate is a verb. Dominant is an adjective.[/pedant]



His $4M signing bonus is immovable, and the remaining $8M will accelerate into 2013 and/or 2014 if he is traded. Once prorated signing bonus hits a cap, it's on for good.

And how about instead of cutting Connolly, the Pats could play Thomas at guard and move Connolly to center.

Wendell is a superior center, one of the better ones in the NFL actually. Don't fix what's not broke

 

[resdubwhite]

So our Oline is pretty old I just realized

I would imagine we'll be seeing an addition to the o line in the first 3 rds this year.
I hope they find a way to keep Thomas.

 

[Deus Irae]

So our Oline is pretty old I just realized

Mankins and Connolly are getting up there. Solder, Cannon, Wendell, McDonald.....


Puppies.

 

[p8ryts]

Thomas is 27 years old and was dominate at times last year. He likely still has his best football infront of him too.

If we retained him we could do a number of things.

Option 1 - Trade Mankins (cap hit $10m) and have him agree to restructure to clear his cap number from our space. He is a superior player to Thomas but is also 5 years older and coming off back to back injury filled seasons.

Option 2 - Cut Dan Connolly and his $3.33m cap hit, it would clear $1.2m in immediate savings and $2.2m in dead money. IMO Thomas is a superior player to Connolly at this point and is also 4.5 years younger.

Option 3 - Keep all 3 spend the extra money. Mankins and Connolly both missed games last year and protecting Brady should be priority #1.

Either way IMO Thomas should be someone we bring back. He has value

Option 1 is preferable. I do not think Mankins is worth what we pay him. Injured a lot lately, plays hurt, but hurts the team playing hurt, fell apart in the last super bowl in the 4th qtr.
Option 2 is a maybe, but I'm not sure Thomas is going to be cheap. Someone else may offer him more than Connolly and is MacDonald the answer at back up center.
I don't think all three will be back

 

[JackBauer]

I don't think all three will be back

You don't think Mankins, Connolly, or Thomas will be back?

I guess we should build Brady a snow fort in the pocket.

 

[Froob]

I wouldn't be surprised if Mankins did end up getting let go within a year or two. Not sure if that even helps their cap room tho so probably wouldn't unless it would. Dante can turn almost any linemen into a quality player. Not sure it's really worth it to spend big money on linemen. A healthy Mankins is a pretty beast player but we haven't seen him in a while.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I wouldn't be surprised if Mankins did end up getting let go within a year or two. Not sure if that even helps their cap room tho so probably wouldn't unless it would. Dante can turn almost any linemen into a quality player. Not sure it's really worth it to spend big money on linemen. A healthy Mankins is a pretty beast player but we haven't seen him in a while.

(A) This year, it costs the Pats an extra $2M in cap to get rid of Mankins. Given his salary, though, they free up cap room next year and the year after.

(B) A great chef can make a good meal out of mediocre ingredients. . . . but think what he can do with the really good stuff.

 

[Froob]

(A) This year, it costs the Pats an extra $2M in cap to get rid of Mankins. Given his salary, though, they free up cap room next year and the year after.

(B) A great chef can make a good meal out of mediocre ingredients. . . . but think what he can do with the really good stuff.

Great post and nice point. I wonder what Dante charges for personal training. Maybe he can make me into a practice squad player might be like 150lbs too light .

 

[Brady6]

[pedant]Dominate is a verb. Dominant is an adjective.[/pedant]



His $4M signing bonus is immovable, and the remaining $8M will accelerate into 2013 and/or 2014 if he is traded. Once prorated signing bonus hits a cap, it's on for good.

And how about instead of cutting Connolly, the Pats could play Thomas at guard and move Connolly to center.

I like Wendell a lot IMO he was very good in 2013.

I suck with grammar more of math guy so thanks for edit..

 

[Brady6]

Mrs Thomas listens to "cap is crap" Felger too much as she ignores the brutal cap hit from trading Mankins, never mind the drop off in talent. Restructuring Mankins is a saner approach.

I'm not a cap expert so if I am wrong in thinking its possible I apologize.

 

[tonyto3690]

If Mankins contract hadn't been booby trapped, I would have loved to trade him and start Thomas. Mankins is better in pass protection (when he is healthy which is about 3 games a year), but Thomas was WAY better as a run blocker for us and it seemed whenever he played our running game just took off. Guy played phenomenal and earned himself some nice money this year in all likelyhood.

Hasn't he played some RT? If that's the case, resign him, start him at RT and when Mankins inevitably gets hurt, swap him into LG and put Cannon at RT.

Like always, it comes down to how much they want.

 

[Sciz]

Mankins is better in pass protection (when he is healthy which is about 3 games a year)

Your memory must be comparable to that of a goldfish

 

[Deus Irae]

If Mankins contract hadn't been booby trapped, I would have loved to trade him and start Thomas. Mankins is better in pass protection (when he is healthy which is about 3 games a year), but Thomas was WAY better as a run blocker for us and it seemed whenever he played our running game just took off. Guy played phenomenal and earned himself some nice money this year in all likelyhood.

That isn't even good comedy.

 

[tonyto3690]

Your memory must be comparable to that of a goldfish

Please explain to me where I was wrong. Mankins was better as a pass blocker. Thomas was a better run blocker.

That isn't even good comedy.

I know you're just out to contradict everything I said after the couple times I proved you wrong in the span of ten minutes the other day, but please stop stalking my posts looking for any opportunity to jump and harass.