With the revelation earlier this week that Patriots guard Logan Mankins had surgery to repair a torn ACL, people in New England started wondering whether he would be ready for the start of next season.
Shaking the Magic 8-Ball brings “Reply hazy, ask later” to the window. The Boston Globe and Boston Herald each have reports about Mankins’ post-surgery outlook on Wednesday and they don’t find much common ground.
The Globe reports that Mankins is facing a six-month recovery after surgery that would make it very difficult for him to be on the field when camp gets underway. Assuming that he’d still need some time to work himself into game shape at that point in time, it would likely be difficult for the guard to be in the lineup when Week One of the regular season rolls around.
Over at the Herald, a source with knowledge of Mankins’ condition shares that Mankins “will be ready for the start of camp.” Under that scenario, the start of the season would be in play and the Patriots might not have to go without their All-Pro guard.
There’s not much reason to think that either side is wrong on this one because every knee is going to rehab differently. Mankins is just at the start of the process so things will have to play out a while before there’s anything concrete about his return date.
The addition of Robert Gallery in free agency suggests the Pats think that there’s at least a chance Mankins isn’t going to be ready for the first camp practice and having a little insurance is never a bad thing.