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Cassel's leverage is with the Patriots, not with potential teams. No team is going to give up a high pick for essentially a one year contract, so there is no threat that the Pats will send him where ever they want to. What GM would sacrifice multi-year control over a high draft pick for a one year high priced rehearsal? Signing now places the urgency with the Patriots, if the Patriots are serious about signing free agents and/or extending current roster players.
And how was this different yesterday? So before he signed the tender teams were willing to sign him to an one year deal. Explain how it is different. Before he signed the tender, virtually any trade would required to be contingent on a multiyear deal being put in place before the trade goes through and it is the same now.
The signing put zero urgency on the Patriots. Their cap number is exactly the same as it was when they tagged Cassel and he didn't sign the deal as it is after they signed the deal. Once you tender a franchise on the players, the franchise number is counted vs. your cap if the player signs the tender or not. Cassel signing the tender did nothing to affect how the Pats approach free agency or resigning their own players. The only way it puts more urgency on the Pats is if they set a date that if they didn't have trade done with Cassel that they would resind the tender and allow Cassel to be an unrestricted free agent without compensation. That wasn't going to happen anyway.
Also, as pointed out, now Cassel cannot negotiate with any team he wants without the Pats' permission. Before he signed the tender, he could go out and make whatever deal he wanted and then let the team he chooses to go and make a deal with the Pats. Now teams have to go through the Patriots just to talk to Cassel and now the Pats have far more control on who talks to Cassel and who doesn't. A team that Cassel may have been interested in may never even get to speak to Cassel now that the Pats control this end of the deal.
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