Filed under: Patriots, AFC East

Not that anyone thought Logan Mankins was going to beat Darrelle Revis to his contract signing, but the fact that Revis finally did come to terms with the New York Jets late Sunday night certainly can’t help Mankins in his holdout with the New England Patriots.

Now the left guard is the lone remaining high profile player choosing to take his ball and go home until he becomes the highest paid guard in the NFL — and it doesn’t appear he intends on changing his stance. And the Patriots are prepared to move on without him, whereas the Jets clearly didn’t want to face the prospect of starting the season without their best defensive player.

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Filed under: Patriots, AFC East, NFL Training Camp

As if losing veteran cornerback Leigh Bodden to season-ending shoulder surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff wasn’t enough bad for the New England Patriots secondary, Saturday’s news that safety Brandon McGowan had to be placed on Injured Reserve with a chest injury certainly didn’t help matters.

McGowan matched-up well against opposing tight ends in coverage and was an effective run-stopper in certain situations. His loss was confirmed when the team announced the rest of its cuts to get down to the league-mandated 53.

On a positive note, the Patriots did not place offensive lineman Nick Kaczur on IR even though he had to have back surgery, so that suggests they feel optimistic that he will be able to return at some point this season.

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Filed under: Patriots, AFC East, NFL Training Camp

With the deadline to finalize the 53-man roster fast approaching, the New England Patriots got right down to business Friday morning by first releasing veteran defensive lineman Damione Lewis.

One school of thought is that New England might bring Lewis back after the season opener against Cincinnati because then they don’t have to guarantee his contract, and Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com breaks that down here. The Patriots are thin along the defensive line right now and could use Lewis’ experience and veteran leadership.

Reiss also reported within the last hour that tight ends’ Rob Myers and Carson Butler have been told they were waived. This comes as no surprise with four-time Pro Bowler Alge Crumpler and celebrated rookies Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez already entrenched on the depth chart. Gronkowski scored his fourth touchdown in the last three preseason games in last night’s 20-17 loss to the Giants.

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Filed under: Patriots, AFC East, NFL Training Camp

Leading up to Thursday’s final preseason game for the New England Patriots against the New York Giants at New Meadowlands Stadium, the primary concern with veteran cornerback Leigh Bodden had been his sore knee, but his play in the previous two preseason games had put those fears to rest. Instead, it was Bodden’s shoulder that unexpectedly landed him on injured reserve this week.

Now he has taken the first step towards getting things right for next season, if there is one.

Bodden, who tore his rotator cuff, went in for surgery on Thursday morning to repair the shoulder and Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald revealed how Bodden is keeping his fans and followers updated on his condition. Bodden used his Twitter account to let everyone know he was on his way to the hospital to go under the knife, and it wasn’t just one Tweet to say where he was going. Bodden was tweeting from his hospital bed — “Got the infamous robe wit the ass out so I’ll holla at y’all! Thanks again for all the support.”

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Filed under: Patriots, AFC East, NFL Training Camp

Late Tuesday afternoon, a disturbing report surfaced involving New England Patriots linebacker Brandon Spikes. It alleged a sex tape with him as the star making the rounds on the Internet.

Needless to say, this is the last line of questioning Patriots coach Bill Belichick wants to be dealing with 10 days before the start of the 2010 regular season, which is why the organization issued a patented “no comment,” when the subject arose yesterday. Unfortunately, in this day and age of stricter personal conduct policies under NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, it won’t be that easy for Spikes.

For now, his agent, Terry Watson, is standing out in front and taking the proverbial punches, as the Boston Herald’s Karen Guregian detailed.

“It’s an embarrassing situation for Brandon,” Watson told Guregian. “It certainly doesn’t reflect the kind of person that he is.”

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Filed under: Patriots, AFC East, NFL Training Camp

The New England Patriots had to make a tough decision regarding veteran cornerback Leigh Bodden as they reached the deadline for trimming the roster down to 75 players, and they had no choice but to place him on injured reserve with a shoulder injury.

Joining Bodden on IR were defensive lineman Darryl Richard and safeties Bret Lockett and Josh Barrett, according to The Boston Globe. New England also released cornerback Terrence Johnson.

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