basement zombie
Practice Squad Player
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2005
- Messages
- 186
- Reaction score
- 23
If Belichick didn't even ask for a first it's laughable and he deserves all the criticism. It's idiotic to think he didn't want a 1st due to contract numbers when he could turn a 1st into lower picks and has many times. He must be getting a sweetheart deal from Pioli down the road or getting senile. He couldn't have made this deal so he could hurry and sign Sanders. He undervalued Cassel plain and simple. Waiting hours or one day for the offers to solidify wouldn't have meant squat in free agency or in signing his own players with the cap savings.
- Since Cassel was franchised, I've been thinking that other teams might have leverage against the Patriots due to the 'relative certainty' that NE keeping Cassel for this year is simply not viable and extremely unlikely to happen. In light of that and the fact that Cassel would need to be signed to an extension if they want to hold on to him longer than this season, I've felt that other teams hold a decent amount leverage against the Patriots.
- Coupled with that, I think its reasonable to assume that we/Patriots wanted to get this deal done quickly to be able to have the option to participate in free agency and/or sign current players to extensions.
- Not to mention the Vrabel piece - knowing coach BB and his history with players, I don't think its unreasonable to assume that he decided that Vrabel was to be cut, and managed to find an excellent way of obtaining his goal (freeing up the salary space) while still being respectful to a Patriot veteran.
Does that seem reasonable to you?