This is like the fucking twilight zone. Like someone else said, you're basically making an argument that sets you up to be never wrong. It doesn't matter what actually happened, all that matters is what was happening when the trade was made? I mean this in all sincerity, but what the fuck are you talking about? You can't judge a trade just based on how you felt about the trade at the time it happened. The results of the trade are the only thing that matters. Sure, if someone gets hurt immediately after a trade, it wouldn't make the trade a bad one at the time the trade was made, but it sure as shit makes the trade a bad one in hindsight. The only difference is whether or not the trade's failure should lead to the GM being destroyed for it. I don't give a flying shit about whether or not the Pats should have traded Mankins or not, which is what you seem to be discussing. I care about whether or not the trade made the team better.
The interior O Line is "still relatively questionable and the weakest link on the team." On what planet is that? They've given up a total of 16 sacks on the season, which has them tied for 6th in the NFL. Ten of those sacks occurred in the first 4 weeks of the season, while the offensive line was beginning to learn how to play together. Brady has basically been untouched in the past 4-5 weeks against some of the best defenses, and best pass rushes, in all of football. They pass when they want, and when they choose to run, like they did against Indy last week, they just pound the fucking defense into oblivion.
Your Brady could be healthier argument is basically the dumbest thing I've ever read on this site, and I'm shocked that more folks haven't jumped in and piled onto that nonsense. The guy isn't hurt, hasn't been hurt, shows no signs of being hurt and hasn't so much as had to pick himself up off the ground more than a few times per game in the past month. Mankins, who IMO flat out sucked in pass protection in recent memory (and anyone who has paid attention to the debacle that is TB would probably agree with, they've given up 32 sacks, fwiw, 25th in the NFL), wouldn't have made them any better, because they pretty much can't be any better. Weakest link on the team? If the entire team was playing as well as the O Line is playing, the Pats would be winning every week in blowout fashion. Oh wait, they are. I was really hoping your first post in this thread was a Riboflav tongue-in-cheek kind of thing, but it just got worse from there.
The strange thing is that you weren't really a "sky is falling, this trade sucks, BB is an asshole" type of guy when the trade happened, so it's not like you have a bunch of shit posts that you're trying to rationalize, so i have no idea why this is even an argument. It's just all sorts of strange. FTR, here's what I wrote at the time:
He's caught 23 of his 25 targets and doesn't play a ton of snaps. He's got all the tools I noted then, and I'm excited to see him play another year in this system. I expect his usage to increase more and more as the season goes on. FTR, he'll be around 15th or 16th in FFL after this weekend's games end. Top 10 is well within reach.
