Mankins Headlines Patriots’ Active PUP List

While Logan Mankins (knee) appears weeks away from performing on the football field, Rob Gronkowski (ankle) seems to be making progress

Some good news and some bad but expected news came out of Patriots camp on Monday, the latter having veteran offensive lineman Logan Mankins being one of several (and the most important) Patriot(s) put on the active physically unable to play list.

The good news? Record breaking tight end Rob Gronkowski was not put on that list, and reported to Gillette Stadium Monday for some light workouts. It seems as though his ankle is doing well and he has been rehabbing extremely hard all offseason. We’ll have plenty more on Gronk as Patriots training camp starts Thursday and we near closer to the preseason, and more importantly, the regular season.

The Mankins move does not come as a surprise, having torn his ACL early on in the Super Bowl AND PLAYING THE REST OF THE GAME. What a warrior. But enough talk about the Super Bowl, I know none of you want to be reminded of that, and are hopefully as optimistic about the upcoming season as I am. It seems as though Mankins is making progress, and some news from our hated rival the Pittsburgh Steelers has lead us to believe that Mankins could be ready for week 1 of the regular season.

Pittsburgh’s offensive lineman Max Starks had offseason surgery to repair his torn ACL about 6 months ago, a couple weeks before Mankins tore his. Steelersdepot.com has reported that although Starks could see himself placed on the Active PUP that “he will be ready to play by week 1 of the regular season at the latest.” This is a hopeful sign that Mankins will be able to work his way up to full strength for the beginning of September.

Although Mankins is unquestionably the most important player in front of Tom Brady, this news was not unexpected, and we will keep a close eye on him (and Max Starks for comparing purposes) for the next 5 weeks.