Vince Wilfork focuses on getting ready, not contracts Wilfork focuses on getting ready, not contracts

FOXBORO - Logan Mankins became "he whose name will not be mentioned" as the Patriots opened their mandatory full-squad minicamp without him in attendance.

The starting left offensive guard, embroiled in a contract dispute with the team, was given the Orwellian "non-person" treatment when reporters asked other players to comment upon the circumstances of his absence.

"I'm not going to touch that, because I have nothing to do with Logan's situation," nose tackle Vince Wilfork said after the first practice at the Gillette Stadium complex. "I'll leave that up to Logan to talk about. I'm just happy to be here."

A year ago at this time, Wilfork was up to his helmet in his own contract "situation," with a few significant differences. He came to minicamp, and training camp, and continued to play out the final year of his contract while negotiations continued - sometimes at a snail's pace - in the background.

Mankins, entering his sixth NFL season, has already played out his rookie contract. He was scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent this year, but because the collective bargaining agreement has not been renewed and 2010 is the first year since 1993 that there is no salary cap in effect, the league changed the parameters for when a player could attain unrestricted status.

Mankins was tendered a contract that would force a team to surrender a first-round pick and a third-round pick to the Patriots if he were to be signed as a free agent. The only way for the Patriots to trade Mankins is if they make a deal with another team and sign Mankins to a contract to be assumed by the receiving team.

The question, however, is what kind of compensation the Patriots would receive via trade, and whether teams that weren't willing to surrender draft picks through free agency would willingly do so in a trade.

Speculation about off-field business was not high on Wilfork's priority list Tuesday.

"Whatever he wants to say, he'll say," the seventh-year veteran said. "My focus is on getting better this year. That's what my focus is, and hopefully everyone else is focused that way. We've got a lot to look forward to."

Wilfork, whose own situation resulted in a five-year, $40 million extension with $25 million in guaranteed money, threatened a quick termination to the interview if reporters persisted on that storyline, so there was a quick shift in topic from a Patriot that wasn't present to one that had just made his first appearance of the offseason.

Wilfork's linemate, end Ty Warren, has been attending classes at Texas A&M in an effort to receive his college degree in agricultural development.

"That's something big, for somebody to do that in the prime of his career," Wilfork said. "That says a lot to the type of person he is, as an individual and as a player. He has a lot of respect on this team I'm happy he's back."

"I have 11 hours that I've got to finish up next spring," Warren said. "I've said it before, it was a sacrifice that I had to make not only the sacrifice of not being up here, but also the sacrifice of a lot of hobbies and stuff like that that I like to do in the offseason. It's not a bad decision at all."

Warren said that regardless of his seven previous seasons in a Patriot uniform, there was still catching up for him to do because of the missed OTAs.

"There's terminology that I've got to get down," he said, "so I came here and got that ahead of time, and that enabled me to be here today. But it's one thing to go over it in the book, and then the coaches like to see you come out here and do it out on the field as well."

Patriots' coach Bill Belichick called the week's festivities (conducted in helmets, shirts and shorts with no hitting) a "learning camp," bearing little resemblance to the intensity of training camp that is still more than a month away.

"It's spring - not even close to training camp," Belichick said. "I don't think you could even possibly compare the two. This is a long way from training camp. It's a teaching camp. We've installed a lot of things. We work on the running game kind of against each other, against ourselves and not against each other so we keep the tempo down, blocking bags and stuff like that. You won't see much of that in training camp."

Wilfork seemed to be keeping the differences in mind Tuesday - especially since he's not the one with a sticky contract situation hanging over his head this season.

"I feel good," he said. "I'm having fun getting the defense down, working the kinks out right now, and hoping that we can put something together that's good this year."

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(thesunchronicle.com)