When we wrote the Patriots post-lockout checklist last week, we suggested that Logan Mankins was unlikely to hold out this year into the regular season and that a long-term deal with the All Pro guard still wouldn’t surprise us.
Mankins’ comments to Tom Curran of CSNNE.com on Monday at a charity golf event support both notions.
“I think about it every now and then but I’m not putting any answers out there yet,” Mankins said. “We’ll see when we get down that road.”
It wasn’t so long ago that Mankins and his agent were taking the scorched earth approach. Now it appears like Mankins recognizes he’ll be in New England in 2011 and may not want to wait any longer to get a long term deal.
“We have a lot of time,” Mankins said when asked if he’ll sign his franchise tag. “We don’t even know if we’ll have a season at this point. I’m hoping they get this resolved before the season so we can play football in time.”
Playing football in time for Mankins would mean that he signs his tender in time to collect all of his $10.1 million due to him next season. That means no long holdout, and possibly the thawing of the relationship between him and the organization.