Tampa, FL (SportsNetwork.com) – The New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers pulled off a stunning trade less than two weeks before the regular- season opener, with the Pats sending six-time Pro Bowl guard Logan Mankins to the Bucs in exchange for tight end Tim Wright.<\/p>\n
The Patriots will also receive a future draft choice from Tampa Bay, which NFL.com reported to be a fourth-round pick in 2015.<\/p>\n
Mankins, a first-round selection of New England in 2005 who has started 130 games during an impressive nine-year run with the Patriots, fills an obvious need on a Buccaneers’ offensive line that lost left guard Carl Nicks to a possible career-ending toe injury. Tampa Bay reached an injury settlement with Nicks, who is believed to be contemplating retirement, last month.<\/p>\n
“We feel very fortunate just to have Logan,” said Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht, who formerly worked for the Patriots as the team’s director of pro personnel. “He’s a very good player. [I’m] a first-hand witness of what he means to the locker room as well. Any time you have five consecutive Pro Bowls, All-Pro player – I mean, [that’s] a lot of accolades. But he’s a great person. He’s going to be great for that room, he’s going to be great for this locker room.”<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old has been named an All-Pro in each of the last four years and was a vital part of two AFC championships in New England as one of Tom Brady’s must trusted protectors.<\/p>\n
“Logan Mankins is everything we would ever want in a football player,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said in a statement. “It is hard to imagine a better player at his position, a tougher competitor or a person to represent our program. He is one of the all-time great Patriots and the best guard I ever coached.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, this is the time of year when difficult decisions have to be made – and this is one of the most difficult we will ever make – but like every other decision it was made for what we feel is in the best interests of the team.”<\/p>\n
In Wright, the Patriots get a player they hope can fill the void left by Aaron Hernandez’s forced departure from the NFL as he awaits trial on charges of murdering associate Odin Lloyd last summer.<\/p>\n
After making the team as an undrafted rookie last season, Wright caught 54 passes for 571 yards and five touchdowns while starting eight games. The 24- year-old finished second among Tampa players in receptions, receiving yards and touchdown catches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tampa, FL (SportsNetwork.com) – The New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers pulled off a stunning trade less than two weeks before the regular- season opener, with the Pats sending six-time Pro Bowl guard Logan Mankins to the Bucs in exchange for tight end Tim Wright. The Patriots will also receive a future draft choice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[68,182,181,183,67,66],"class_list":["post-22660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nfl","tag-buccaneers","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-patriots","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22668,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22660\/revisions\/22668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}