







Mankins appears close to becoming a Patriot for life. (FILE:Icon/SMI)







It looks like the Logan Mankins saga is finally closing in on a happy ending.Patriots owner Robert Kraft met with the media on Wednesday, and revealed that the two sides are getting close to hopefully keeping Mankins in Foxboro for a long time.“I hope that after locking up our core veterans and bringing in these seasoned veterans as I call them, and probably you’ll see our good friend Logan Mankins will be signed up soon hopefully to be a Patriot for life,” Kraft said Wednesday.They've certainly come a long way since MankinsLet's face it, this whole process has been somewhat ugly and the negotiations have been fairly contentious. Mankins agent, Frank Bauer, has blasted the front office publicly on multiple occasions throughout the process. He's called the Patriots inability to give his client an extension a "travesty", and insinuated that they were dishonest.Hiswith the Herald's Ian Rapoport were eye-opening, because it obviously sounded that he doubted whether or not the Patriots were serious about keeping him here.“I know what Kraft it leaning on, if there’s going to be changes, and it all stems back to the 2008 discussion that if you play out the 2009 season, we’ll take care of you in the uncapped year. You know all that [explative]," said Bauer. "We’ll take care of you, then they came back with the low figures, that’s where it started.”As mentioned here previously, we really haven't seen a contract negotiation this ugly and pubicly nasty since the days of Ty Law and the Poston brothers. Rather than keep any issues Bauer had "in house", he decided instead to air them publicly, which probably didn't help the situation and likely delayed the process. That's not how the Patriots front office operates, and if it wasn't for the private 'face-to-face' discussions Kraft had with Mankins, you have to wonder if today's news would have even been possible. Obviously this is about the former first round pick, and not his agent, and it sounds like the relationship that matters is where it needs to be.“All I know is any face-to-face discussions I’ve had or private discussions have all been positive,” Kraft said. “I just hope that he’ll be a Patriot long-term.”Thankfully it looks like it's all close to finally being over with. According to Kraft he's hopeful they'll get a deal done, but hinted that it will be up to whether or not Mankins side wants to reach an agreement.“If I have a vote it will get done,” Kraft said. “The other side’s got to want it too, but it’s our desire — it’s always been our desire — but… you can’t sign everyone you want, so you need to plan, and I think we did our planning knowing the kind of environment we were coming into, and we tried to position ourselves so we had our core veterans and we could continue to sign the people we want to sign. We very much...we think that Logan is among the best there is at his position. We drafted him and we want him. ”If all goes well, hopefully they'll get to keep him around for a long time.