New England Patriots trade Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel to Kansas City Chiefs for second-round pick
New England Patriots decision to trade veteran outside linebacker Mike Vrabel and backup quarterback Matt Cassel to Kansas City Chiefs for a second round pick in the 2009 draft has quite simply stunned many Patriots fans. So convinced were many fans that Cassel is a worth a first-round pick that some speculate that Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick struck a buddy-deal with Chiefs General Manager Scott Pioli, formerly New England’s personnel guy and reportedly a close friend of Belichick.
I find it very hard to believe that Belichick would do anything that isn’t “in the best interest of the team,” as he always puts it. The market simply wasn’t there for a first-round pick for Cassel. While many Patriots fans had expected such compensation, I think most NFL teams took the view that Cassel was in a better position to succeed with the Patriots – where he had spent 3 1/2 years in the system, had wide receivers Wes Welker and Randy Moss, a group of proven and productive runningbacks and an experienced offensive line with three pro Bowlers – than he’d be with any of them, and since he didn’t really succeed all that much with the Patriots he could hardly be worth a first-round pick. One of the teams that potentially had interest in Cassel, the Minnesota Vikings, settled for Sage Rosenfels, who they acquired for a mere fourth round pick (considering the frosty relations between the Patriots and the Vikings I’m not sure they would have dealt with each other anyway).
Nor did it help the Patriots that there was practically no chance of them keeping Cassel, who they had designated as a franchise player with a cap cost of about $15 million. With Cassel and Vrabel gone through a trade they clear their combined $17 million cap hit off the books.
While the trade may not immediately have made many Patriots fans happy, it does strengthen the team’s hand in this year’s draft, as Patriots Football Weekly writer Andy Hart explains on the PFW blog:
New England now has its first (No. 23), three seconds and a third. Bill Belichick could also very well end up with another third through the compensatory process for the departure of Asante Samuel. Six picks in the first three rounds for Belichick certainly sounds like a good way to infuse some talented youth into the team, no? Combine that with the fact that the team’s biggest needs — cornerback, edge rusher and wide receiver — are some of the deepest in the draft, and Belichick has a great chance to fill holes and rebuild on the run.
On the same blog, Erik Scalavino, another PFW writer looks at how the Patriots ended up with a second for what many thought was a sure first.
I agree with Mike Reiss on the trade:
In the end, the feeling here is that the Patriots turned a 2005 seventh-round draft choice — a player many felt would be cut at the end of training camp (me included) — into a valuable 2009 second-round pick.
The trade overshadowed a terrific little free agent signing for the Patriots, the addition of runningback Fred Taylor. Taylor should be a solid change-of-pace back and will likely fit in well with the Patriots committee approach at runningback. Position coach Ivan Fears has repeatedly showed that he can get veteran runningbacks to find a productive place in the Patriots backfield.
