Mankins, "Leader of the Line"

At the beginning of the season the concern wasn’t about injuries or defense, it was about our offensive line who struggled in the preseason. Now, you hear virtually nothing about possibly the most improved area of the team from when the season began to present day. All NFL games are won at the line of scrimmage because, without blocking, a run or pass game has no chance. Without the defensive line putting up resistance, every game would be a pick-up game.

Logan Mankins of the New England Patriots has probably had the roughest time adjusting this year. The 30 year old Guard has had to deal with the way his body reacts, as well as the new faces around him. Logan Mankins spent seven seasons next to familiar faces Dan Koppen and Matt Light, but this season has had to deal with becoming the leader on that line. In a quote by Mankins he describes how tough it was for him.

"I played next to those guys for seven seasons. We've been through a lot together, and all of a sudden, they're gone," he proclaimed. "I went from the third oldest to the oldest (on the line) very fast."

Becoming the oldest on the team meant more of a role of leadership and for the way this line has come together as of this point, I’ll give him a “job well done.”

Logan Mankins had a good run of being healthy for a majority of his career, but has since had some troubles in that area and that has some impatient fans calling for the boot. Some analysts and fans believe that the Patriots run game was more effective when Mankins was out of the line-up last year and for a couple games this year. I’ll agree with former New England Patriot Tedy Bruschi and call bull crap on that assessment. Why are people pretending that they want to go to a Patriots game and watch Ridley run 35-40 times? The main area of concern for your offensive line is to protect and give ample time to one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, Tom Brady. The Tom Brady led Patriots have never been about the run and I’m sick of the frauds that come out of the woodwork during the playoffs and act like we need a run game to be successful. It’s like hello!? Have you been watching the past 14 years? Ridley might be the best back we’ve had in 14 years and I’m all about the run game, but when you have the receiving weapons we do, on top of Tom Brady, the run game is nothing more than a decoy that is hopefully successful.