Re: Vrabel traded to KC
There's absolutely no way this isn't part of some other kind of deal. The way I see it there are just a few possibilities for what's happened here:
1) Vrabel is going to KC for a pick, that pick is going along with Cassel to Carolina for Peppers.
2) Vrabel is going to KC with Cassel, and Shefter just hasn't heard the other end of the deal yet. I'm not seeing this so much, because there clearly has to be another OLB coming back to New England. I just can't see BB trading Vrabel and leaving such a huge hole on the outside without another player coming in. For God's sake they had Rosey Colvin playing out there this year.
3) Vrabel is leaving to KC and this is just a move to free up cap space to sign someone -- maybe Bodden, Mike Brown, someone like that. Again, though, I just don't them making this move without a linebacker coming back. So maybe there's a signing, too. Clark Haggans? Angelo Crowell? Kevin Burnett? Or, being completely crazy maybe, Ray Lewis? None of those options seem to make too much sense.
4) Vrabel goes to KC for a KC player. The two obvious candidates WOULD have been Larry Johnson or Tony Gonzalez, but with the deals for Baker and Taylor sealing the depth at those spots, you'd have to kind of doubt that that's the case. But who else on the roster would you even want? They're not giving up Glenn Dorsey or Dwayne Bowe or Derrick Johnson. The only other guys I can even imagine being in play are Tamba Hali or maybe Brian Waters. Waters would make sense in a vacuum -- a pair of aging vets traded for each other. But the Pats don't really need a 32 year-old guard, even one as good as Waters.
5) Vrabel is going to KC for picks and this isn't a precursor for another concrete move on the Pats' part. This is possible, I guess -- the Pats deciding to trim fat from the roster and getting rid of some expensive old guys in exchange for picks. But to me his doesn't make sense, either, because in all other respects the Pats are behaving like a team gearing up for a major veteran-driven championship run. You don't sign an older guy like Fred Taylor and then jettison a guy like Vrabel (who plays a position of extreme need) in the same day just for general fiscal responsibility purposes.
Overall, the only way this even makes sense at all from New England's standpoint is if this is a precursor to another move that brings back a player who is better than Vrabel at Vrabel's position. How many guys are there like that who are available? It has to be Peppers, or someone like that.
