I DREAM OF MANGINI

The courtship of Eric Mangini will supposedly conclude sometime this afternoon. According to the this mornings's Boston Globe, Patriots secondary coach, Eric Mangini, has at least three offers to become a defensive coordinator and is poised to make his "best in show" selection. Along with the Pats, the highly sought after whiz kid has offfers from both Cleveland and Miami.

Let me preface this piece by saying I don't know Mangini from Adam and therefore I don't think I am the most qualified to say whether he is destined to be a great defensive coordinator. I know the Raiders had a crush on him last year, but the protege decided he wanted no part of that hell hole. So he decided to come back and saw his stock rise after he worked miracles with a injury devastated secondary. This is a guy who started the season assuming he had ten million dollar man Ty Law locking down one side of the field and capable vet Ty Poole manning the other corner. With two safeties and a nickel back coming back, Mangini probably thought he had a quiet year ahead. And then things went South and South in a hurry.

First, Poole went out with a bum knee. This loss was manageable. Poole had a great start in 03, but his play was spotty down the stretch and uninspiring in 04. Its never good to lose a capable vet at cornerback, but this was not a devastating blow. Hey, injuries are part of the game and losing Poole is hardly crippling. On the other hand, losing an all-pro corner is never a positive and that is exactly what happened on Halloween. When Law busted his foot in Pittsburgh, alarm bells went off all over New England. The initial reports were not too discouraging, but when ESPN reported that Monday that he was gone for six weeks, the Pats future didn't look to promising. With two games looming against good passing teams from Missouri, the AFC East was suddenly up for grabs.

But a funny thing happened on the way to mediocrity and I assume Eric Mangini played an important role. Rather then folding, the pats used a couple of band-aids to keep the secondary afloat. Asante Samuel took over one corner spot and undrafted rookie free agent Randall Gay was given a Berlitz class in how to play corner in the NFL. Undersized linebacker Don Davis was asked to play some safety, free safety Eugene Wilson got some reps at corner and wide receiver Troy Bown was brought across the line to play some nickel. All things considered, the results were nothing short of amazing.

Over the back half of the season, the Pats patchwork secondary, under Mangini's tutelage, bent, but only broke once. They gave up yards to St. Louis, KC and Cinci, but in each case, much of the yardage came after the games were decided. Morever, this secondary was able to slap zeros on Buffalo, Baltimore and Cleveland. Miami turned into a disaster late, but this group responded with a terrific game at the Meadowlands. All in all, Mangini's troops performed admrably given the difficult circumstances. In particular, Brown picked off three passes, Samuel proved he is more then just a nickel guy and both Samuel and Gay proved to be dependable tacklers. There were times where receievers caught balls in front of this pair, but it was rare to see one them miss a tackle in the defensive backfield.

The win over the Jets seemed to serve as a springboard for the Pats secondary. In the playoffs, Mangs set up a great gameplan against the Colts and his boys executed perfectly. The colts longest play that day was 18 yards and even that may have been overturned if it had been challenged. The Steelers didn't prove much more succesful the next week and it was a play by Safety Rodney Harrison that sealed that game. As for the Super Bowl, Mangs' young corners played very well early, althoguh they did get a bit conservative after Wilson left the game. Nonethelss, the eagles were only able to hit one big play and that was over Wilson's substitute Dexter Reid.

The conventional wisdom now is Mangini did a terrific job with his guys and he is now ready to call the defensive plays for some team in the NFL. The Browns hope it will be in Cleveland. And with former Pats defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel now heading up the brownies, there is speculation that Mangini will tag along. Miami is also playing in this poker game. New coach Nick Saban is supposedly enamored with Mangini and is ready to spend some of Wayne Huizinga's money to make Mangini a wealthy man. Many analysts and reporters think both the Cleveland and Miami bids are much higher then tight-fisted New England will be willing to pay so the assumption is that Mangini is a goner. However, I think its important to note that some of these analysts - like WFAN's Mike Francesa - are devout Patriot haters and are praying that Mangini leaves. Francesa's mantra over the past week is that the coaching issue in New England is a huge issue for Belicheck and the departure of Mangini would do nothing to silence the fat man of Long Island.

I would urge caution on such assumptions. According to the Globe's report, Mangini, who made $216,000 last year, turned down an offer last year from Oakland that approached seven figures. As such, I think it is safe to assume that money is not the only thing that motivates the young assistant. And so why did he turn it down? To come back to New England and bide his time until a better DC spot opened up? Are the spots in Cleveland or Miami much better then Oakland? Did he come back because he knew Crennel would get a head coaching job and he wanted to go along? I can't see that being the case. Whose to say Crennel was going to get a job? That was not assured and I don't see a guy making such an important career decision based on so much uncertaintly.

I think the most logical assumption is that Belicheck gave Mangini a nod and a wink: "If Romeo leaves, you get the keys to the car." Clearly Mangs will bolt if he is going to be passed over for the coordinators job - which is a possibility - but if the Patriots DC job is his, why wouldnt he stay? As coordinator, Mangs will get to run a loaded defense on a team that could go back to the Super Bowl. And I believe that if he stays, he is probably on the fast track to get his own team. So as long as the Pats really want Mangs and make him a credible offer, I think Eric Mangni will be standing on the sidelines calling plays for the Pats next year.