Patriots fans have a much better chance of seeing two-time Pro Bowl guard Logan Mankins in New England next season. New England brass put a tender offer on Mankins, a restricted free agent, for $3.3 million dollars making it difficult for any other NFL team to sign him. Any suitors would have to give up a lot for the six year pro. Mankins has a lot of years left in him and has been arguably the Patriots best lineman the past few years. The Fresno State product was drafted in the first round by New England in 2005. Mankins has started in 16 games every season he’s been a pro and any team would be glad to have him. Cosidering all the punishment NFL lineman take in the trenches week in and week out it’s amazing how durable and consistent Mankins has been in New England. The Patriots should be doing everything they can to keep this guy in Foxborough.

The Patriots are resigned to the fact that they will be without wide out Wes Welker when they enter the 2010 NFL season. Welker suffered a season ending knee injury and might not be available until next Thanksgiving. New England signed former-Patriots receiver David Patten this week, but the 35-year-old was out of football in 2009 and might not even make the team next year. The Patriots’ loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the playoffs last season showed how important Welker is to the offense. In the past three seasons in New England, Welker has caught more than 110 receptions, racked up more than 1100 receiving yards, and been a big leader in the locker room. Tom Brady uses Welker almost as a running game, moving the chains with short pass attacks to the 5′9 receiver out of Texas Tech. Expect the Patriots to draft a receiver with one of their early picks to give Brady more options next season without on of his favorite targets in the lineup for a good chunk of the year.

The New England Patriots have dipped into former Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis’s newly unemployed Notre Dame staff and hired Corwin Brown to coach the defensive backs. Bill Belichik coached Michigan product Corwin from 1993-1996 when the Pats head coach was the defensive back coach in New England. Corwin went on to play for the New York Jets and Detroit Lions in what was a eight year NFL career. Corwin was Weis’ defensive coordinator on the dismal Fightin’ Irish team that went 6-6 in 2009, but has NFL coaching experience as he was the secondary coach for the New York Jets from 2004-2006. The Patriots are getting an experienced coach who’s played the position in the NFL. The Pats could be much worse off. The Patriots gave up the fifth fewest points during the regular season in 2009, but were unhappy with their early playoff exit where the Baltimore Ravens put up 33 points in Gillette Stadium. Josh Boyer coached the defensive backs in 2009 and it has yet to be decided if he will have role with the Patriots next season.

You can add Tom Brady to a widening list of NFL stars pulling out of next week’s Pro Bowl taking place in Miami a week before the Super Bowl. Brady played the final games of the season with rib and finger injuries and decided that playing in the Pro Bowl might put his health at risk. The five-time Pro Bowler is the second AFC quarterback to bow out of the game as Steelers’ star Ben Roethlisberger announced he would not play after he was selected. Matt Schaub of the Houston Texans will replace Brady who has now turned down two Pro Bowl invitations as he also declined to play in the 2006 Pro Bowl.

Brady had a solid year in 2009 after missing the 2008 season with a serious knee injury he suffered in the first game of the year. Throwing for 4,770 yards, Brady battled through injury helping the Patriots to another AFC East division title earning the 2009 NFL Comeback Player of the Year award in the process. The 32-year-old did not play well in the Pats’ 33-14 loss to Baltimore Ravens throwing three inteceptions. With the injury problems Brady has had in recent years risking further injury in the Pro Bowl was probably not the best idea. Hopefully, #12 will heal up from the season quick and come into next season 100%.

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Apparently the beginning of the necessary changes is going to be with the defensive coordinator position. Now that the previous coordinator Prees is gone, they will be searching for a coordinator. Does it seem like this year has had more talk about coaches than most offseasons in the NFL? Either way, they will be hoping to have a defensive coordinator that can bring this defense back to what it used to be. After all, the way that the Pats got to their first championships was through the use of their defense. They shifted to offense when they realized what power they had there, but they will have to upgrade on both ends for next season. Some more communication on the defensive line for some real stops will be very important. Yes a new coordinator will help, but some players to finally take the place of the departed ones will help out greatly.

Does yesterday’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens mean that the Patriots are done? No. They’re only done for this year. But future years can still bring great successes. Remember, Tom Brady spend much of this year trying to come back to full strength. And he was injured for big swaths of this year, but he didn’t dare take time off, because that would put their backup in and they didn’t want that. Baltimore, however, had some great plays and were able to stifle the Pats. The Patriots, on the other hand, made mistakes. Apparently Brady is a bit hurt and that helped create his mistakes. Either way, they will have to get the kinks out of their system next year and into the future if they want to win it again. Baltimore won fair and square, but that doesn’t mean we have to be happy about it. Let’s get some younger talent back in and some new receiving so that we don’t have to worry so much about that.

The Patriots have had a tough two years. The kind of season they had last year was too bad, mainly because of the injury to Brady early and they ended up unable to make it into the playoffs. At the same time, they were down when other teams were up. This year, Wes Walker is going to be out of the playoffs. This is Brady’s best target this year and he’s gone. But Brady has played in weirder and more difficult situations. He has been down in the AFC Championship and Super Bowl. He’s won in unexpected circumstances several times. This is a veteran team and they know to adjust to new situations. Against the Baltimore Ravens, we’ll see how well this team has adjusted. Either they will have a great plan set or they will head home. I hope it’s the first one!

The Patriots got the Baltimore Ravens to start off the playoffs. This should be a good thing since the Ravens were a relatively low-ranked team. But it looks like it’s going to be a big test. For one thing, the Pats lost Wes Welker to an injury and he’s probably out for the entire postseason. So the Pats are going to be without one of our major receivers. And the Ravens always have a wild card type of defense that is hard to guess at. They have tricks and a lot of talent on the defensive squad. They’re not known for shutting people down all the time, but they can buckle down at times and get sneaky turnovers. Hopefully, the Patriots will be able to turn on their defense again and start a good march to the championship. It will definitely be a great game this weekend and I hope that we come out on top!

When the Patriots play against the Texans this weekend, it’s looking to be a tough game. The Texans will be playing for a playoff spot. It’s going to take a lot of work for them to get into the playoffs, and not a little luck. Meanwhile, the Pats don’t have much reason to play too hard. Of course, they want to be in good form when the playoffs begin in 9 days, but they don’t need to play too hard for it because their spot is pretty well assured. They aren’t perfect this year, but that’s probably ok. Our Pats seem to play so much better when they’re not at the TOP of the rankings. They seemed to get a bit psyched out when they were undefeated. Hopefully the playoffs look better generally than the regular season has at times. I’m sure they can kick it up a notch.

It’s possible that the New England Patriots are suffering in part because Tom Brady just isn’t keeping up with his old style of play calling. Several commentators have said that it’s because he’s making bad choices in the pocket and on the field generally. But I don’t see it. Yes, there have been some silly mistakes, but any player is going to make those at various times. I think it’s more likely that this quarterback is just playing the way anyone else would in the same situation. Brady has always been a player that’s willing to take risks; it’s just this year that he finds that he needs to take them more often, for whatever reason. Either it’s because his defense didn’t work out right or because the plays just aren’t working out the same. Brady will keep his starting job for a long time to come because he deserves it.