One story that was interesting was one from The Athletic last week where Matthew Fairburn took a look back at Logan Mankins, with Dante Scarnecchia and Bill Belichick each taking time to talk about Mankins’ contributions for the story.
Scarnecchia and Belichick reportedly met with Mankins prior to the draft in 2005 (Mankins was taken in Round 1 with the 32nd overall pick) and sat down with him to go over protection schemes.
According to Fiarburn, during the meeting, Scarnecchia reportedly drew out various protection schemes on a whiteboard in detail, before eventually erasing them completely and asking Mankins to repeat it with the same terminology.
Mankins reportedly did it with ease, acing the test and impressing the two coaches.
That meeting was all they needed and Mankins ended up being taken at the end of the first round later that offseason, setting up a career where he started in 130 games over nine seasons.
The fact Belichick took time out during this offseason to comment for the story spoke volumes, with Belichick telling Fairburn how much he enjoyed working with the former Fresno State standout.
“I haven’t coached a tougher, more consistent player than Logan,” said Belichick. “He was a Day 1 starter who could play every position on the line, and it never changed. When I think of foundational players of the past two decades, who were at their absolute best every day in every way, Logan Mankins quickly comes to mind.”
What’s crazy is the fact Mankins’ career in New England ended without a Super Bowl ring, with the final years including a contentious contract dispute, followed by an eventual trade to Tampa Bay in 2014.
Unfortunately, Mankins had to watch his old team beat Seattle months later on television instead of being on their sideline.
However, that being said, Mankins’ toughness and his time with the team remains one of the more underrated personnel moves in team history and it’s unfortunate that things ended the way they did.
The former Patriot reportedly still resides in New England and does community work in the Boston area. Hopefully, at some point, he’ll find his way into the Patriots Hall of Fame. He certainly deserves it.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
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