Is the issue of New England Patriots guard Logan Mankins' holdout not so much the guard's behavior or the about-face by Robert Kraft, but that a guard doesn't illicit the same amount of fan attention that other positions?
That is the take CNBC's Darren Rovell has taken on the Mankins holdout, as he explains in a Monday morning article. He says that Mankins, especially with the competency of his lesser paid replacement Dan Connolly, can't force a new deal as easily because his absence isn't as noticeable as some of his teammates more apt to end up in the end zone:
"Unlike a missing wide receiver, running back or quarterback, it's hard for even the most educated football fans to grade out an offensive lineman's performance and tell you how that affected the game."
Should the Patriots then focus on signing Randy Moss, whose one-armed catch in Sunday's loss to the Jets was one of the Patriots' few highlights? Will Moss's tangible-to-the-normal-fan's contributions finally make Kraft strike a deal with the vocal receiver?