Don't say this out loud. All the "Franchise Cassel" folks are in denial about a couple of facts:
1. Franchising Cassel takes away $15 million of our cap space, until he is traded, which might not happen immediately if his agent is a tough bargainer.
2. Our players who become FAs next year will hit the market March 1. We will have to try to sign our FAs and sign other team's FAs using only the cap money remaining after the $15 mil Cassel hit.
3. Signing without a big cap space will be tough because you can no longer pro-rate a signing bonus for the entire length of the contract. Most of the money is taken off the cap this year.
4. By the time Cassel is traded, our best FAs would have had a taste of big dollars in Free Agency and may have already signed with other teams. We can't franchise them while working out a deal because we are using the tag on Cassel.
5. It isn't even a certainty that Cassel can be traded if he is franchised. If he doesn't like the team or what they are offering, he simply refuses to sign a long term deal with that team and kills the trade.
But still the cry is, "It's a no brainer. We should franchise Cassel." Actually, I agree with the no brainer part of the idea
Chance losing our own FAs and lose the ability to sign otehr FAs to try to get a first or second round pick, when we'll get a 3rd round pick by losing him to FA anway? Sure.
Funny thing is, the folks crying loudest to not let Cassel go are the ones who were screaming to cut him last September.