ESPN Poll: Would you want your team to go after Matt Cassel

[mesoslo]

The reasons why the poll sits around 50% is 7-4 record of the patriots and the have not secured a playoff spot yet. If Cassel gets into the playoffs and make it to the AFC Championship game that poll will be sitting around 80%.

 

[smg93]

True, but the point is even now at only 7-4, there could be more than half the nfl fanbases who would rather have MC as their QB rather than their existing one. Whether it's 50% or 80%, all this tells me is that a likelihood of a Franchise Tag and Trade is quite strong if we assume that the interest remains as is or even gets stronger.

 

[Lansdowne]

I added teams and QB names to your list.

Originally Posted by ctpatsfan77 View Post
ESPN also provides a state-by-state breakdown, so we can actually get a better idea of what certain fan bases think.

Massachusetts 76%(!) - Patriots
Minnesota 71% - Vikings
Michigan 65% - Lions
Missouri 61% - Rams
Washington 58% - Seahawks
California 56% - most likely SF
North Carolina 56% - Panthers
Illinois 54% - Bears
Florida 53% - Tampa Bay?
Tennessee 51% - Titans
Connecticut 51% - Patriots
Texas 49% - Texans?
Pennsylvania 47% - Eagles
Ohio 45% - Bengals
New York 42% - Jets

And then we get to the only five states <40%, i.e., DO NOT WANT territory. . . .
Wisconsin 40% - Rodgers
Georgia 40% - Ryan
Colorado 39% - Cutler
Indiana 38% - Manning
Louisiana 33% - Brees

Out of the >40% group, the teams that seem to be likely to make a strong push for Cassel would be Vikings, Lions, Rams, 49ers, Bears, Bucs, and Eagles (depending on what they do with McNabb).

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

i added teams and qb names to your list.

Massachusetts 76%(!) - patriots don't forget all those pre-1960 giants fans and their offspring.
minnesota 71% - vikings
michigan 65% - lions
missouri 61% - rams kansas city, mo.
washington 58% - seahawks
california 56% - most likely sf most likely - but jamarcus has been injured or holding out more than he's played.
north carolina 56% - panthers
illinois 54% - bears
florida 53% - tampa bay? could be jax too, i doubt either of the two miami fans have anyone to read them espn polls.
tennessee 51% - titans
connecticut 51% - patriots jesters and giants too.
texas 49% - texans? seems like, though you have to wonder if there are people looking at romo's favre-ish postseason record.
pennsylvania 47% - eagles i dunno, there may be a couple steeler fans looking at toothless and thinking it's time to get a qb with less mileage and more brain cells.
ohio 45% - bengals browns too; palmer is injured, quinn is injured, anderson tanked, but may yet rebound.
new york 42% - jets

and then we get to the only five states <40%, i.e., do not want territory. . . .
Wisconsin 40% - rodgers
georgia 40% - ryan
colorado 39% - cutler
indiana 38% - manning
louisiana 33% - brees

Somehow the software is reducing my Capital letters when I preview a post...weird.

 

[tedylb]

If this poll had been taken in preseason, about 75% of The fans wouldn't have known who Matt is. I doubt that 5% would have wanted him, including NE fans. This just shows how much Cassel's stock has soared.

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

So let's look at these states (and ignore MA!). You've got the Vikings, Lions, Rams, Seahawks, 49ers (likely not the chargers), Panthers, and Bears as probable trading partners.

All of a sudden, $14m for the franchise tag doesn't look at all that bad. Because there are so many teams, the likelihood of offers from them being more than $14m guaranteed looks more and more likely.

Detroit as a trading partner would be awesome!

All NFC teams, works for me.....I don't like losing really good players to other AFC teams.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Why would the percentage of fans who want a player in any given region, have any bearing on the front office of a team securing that player's services?

Wisconsin is in the "No thanks" realm, and they're most easily tied to their fan-base, given the GB municipal ownership thing.

Every other team is purely owned as a business. It is absolutely irrelevant whose fans say they want Cassel in evaluating Cassel's future.

PFnV

 

[patsfaninpittsburgh]

I would list

Tampa
Philly
Minnesota

As likely candidates. All three are legit contenders if they get a QB. Philly is the most interesting if Andy Reid goes.

Would love to see MC prove the McNabb ballwashers wrong.

 

[PittPatriot]

I will have a terrible nightmare in the next few days where Cassel and Chad Jackson team up to decimate our 2ndary. That won't ever happen, right?

 

[PJM]

I didn't see the poll but I think most of these fans consider Cassel a free agent. How many would give up a 1st for him is more debatable. The Schaub deal was for 2nd round picks in 2008 & 2009 and swap of 1st (moving Atlanta up 2 places).

While I'd love to get something for Cassel, he's been a good trooper and served his time as a backup. I'd have no gripe if he became a free agent. The danger would be that he would collect his $14m for nothing and get a free agent's contract for $4-5 pa in 2010 instead of $8m now.

 

[tedylb]

Why would the percentage of fans who want a player in any given region, have any bearing on the front office of a team securing that player's services?

Wisconsin is in the "No thanks" realm, and they're most easily tied to their fan-base, given the GB municipal ownership thing.

Every other team is purely owned as a business. It is absolutely irrelevant whose fans say they want Cassel in evaluating Cassel's future.

PFnV

I disagree Patsfan. As a football decision, the fans' opinions may be irrelevant. But from a "purely business" POV, the owners would be wise to listen to the fans. If franchised, Matt's $14 mil price tag would be greatly reduced from increased season ticket sales, local tv and radio deals, and residuals, like selling Cassel #16 jerseys, etc.

Don't you think the Red Sox factored these tangibles and intangibles when bidding $51 mil just for the rights to Matsuzaka?

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I disagree Patsfan. As a football decision, the fans' opinions may be irrelevant. But from a "purely business" POV, the owners would be wise to listen to the fans. If franchised, Matt's $14 mil price tag would be greatly reduced from increased season ticket sales, local tv and radio deals, and residuals, like selling Cassel #16 jerseys, etc.

Don't you think the Red Sox factored these tangibles and intangibles when bidding $51 mil just for the rights to Matsuzaka?

It does factor, to an extent--although remember that the $51M posting for Matsuzaka was dependent on the Sox coming to terms with Dice-K; no contract = no payout.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Why would the percentage of fans who want a player in any given region, have any bearing on the front office of a team securing that player's services?

Wisconsin is in the "No thanks" realm, and they're most easily tied to their fan-base, given the GB municipal ownership thing.

Every other team is purely owned as a business. It is absolutely irrelevant whose fans say they want Cassel in evaluating Cassel's future.

PFnV

Well "harumph!" to you too! :snob:

It's interesting from the perspective of how fans see their team's present at QB. (Unlike NE fans who wanted to throw the bum out before game one, I'm sure fans of other teams are approaching the decision rationally and carefully weighing their options. )

I vote for Philly to fire Reid, hire McDaniels, trade McNabb to Minnesota, and trade their 2009 3rd rd pick, 2010 4th rd pick, and MLB Stewart Bradley for Cassel.

 

[smg93]

Why would the percentage of fans who want a player in any given region, have any bearing on the front office of a team securing that player's services?

Wisconsin is in the "No thanks" realm, and they're most easily tied to their fan-base, given the GB municipal ownership thing.

Every other team is purely owned as a business. It is absolutely irrelevant whose fans say they want Cassel in evaluating Cassel's future.

PFnV

PFnV,

If you read my previous posts, this was just a blind assumption on my part. Obviously it would be difficult for ESPN to have a survey from thre FO's of all the NFL teams. I was using the fanbase as a proxy for the FO's. No, these assumptions are not scientific!

 

[spacecrime]

ESPN really inadvertently helped us out by doing that poll. Worst case scenario we franchise him. No way Cassel walks and we get nothing in return.

Everyone keeps saying this but no one is saying how to force Cassel to sign a long term deal with another team if he prefers to be a free agent.

THe big problem with a franchise and trade is not finding a partner, it is convincing Cassel he will be better off signing with who the Patriots choose at the salary that team is willing to pay rather than letting the open market dictate his salary.

If Cassel gives any sign of hesitation, it would be suicide for the Patriots to franchise him. They can fit him under the cap, but barely. They will be able to sign no new free agents until his $14.7 millionn is off the cap.

Sorry, I know this is a fantasy wet dream for you franchise-and-trade guys to get something for nothing, but Cassel holds all the cards here.

 

[spacecrime]

I disagree Patsfan. As a football decision, the fans' opinions may be irrelevant. But from a "purely business" POV, the owners would be wise to listen to the fans.

Fans want a winning team. Period.

From a purely business stadnpoint it would be the height of stupidity to hire the best personnel men in the business and then let the fans decide who to sign.

Paying ANY attention to what fans want regarding personnel is stupid. If a decision turns out bad, they will not say, "Oh, well, it's the guy I wanted. Not the Pats fault." No, they will blame the Pats for a bad signing. Likewise, if the Pats sign a guy the fans weren't in love with, ... well, doesn't that happen all the time? Where was the pre-draft Pats fan demands to sign Logan Mankins?

Most fans here were furious that we gave up draft picks for Belichick.

Most Pats fans wanted David Terrell, not Richard Seymour

Fans here were happy with the drafting of Chad Jackson and Bethel Johnson.

Fans want a good team.

They will not suddenly stop watching games and buying T-shirts because of a decision they didn't like, or buy more tickets and merchandise because of a decision they liked.

To say that it is good business for a football team to cater to fans whims rather than try to build the best team possible is nuts. It is terrible business.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Yeah I guess I stated the obvious way too hamfistedly. We can't get inside dope on every front office's business, except maybe guys like Minnesota who announced the percentage of throws going to Moss and then forgot it was their turn to draft, or Detroit, which couldn't do any worse if they put the diagram of the play they're calling on the Jumbotron... where they draft wide receivers then go out and get the Bust of the Decade to toss them the ball...

Where was I? Oh yeah I was way too hamfisted about it.

I think reality says they'll want Cassel around for 09. The decision is whether to sign or franchise, and I just can't see signing him when the expectation is that Tommy will be 100% by 2010 if not 2009.

(I am allowing for either end of that spectrum.)

It is, of course, possible that Tom is never "himself" again, in which case EVER letting Cassel go is a huge mistake. But that's an outlier outcome, not one I think of as in the main sequence. We have to go by the assumption that we get full-on Tom by 2010 latest.

PFnV

 

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

As of 106,000 votes, the answer is 52% Yes

To over simplify, let's assume that all the respondents are spread evenly across all NFL teams (yes, I know it's a huge assumption), that means that the fanbase of approximately half of all NFL teams would want to pursue MC. This would mean that there would be good demand for his services next year and MAY mean that a Franchise Tag then a Trade is actually a viable option again assuming of course that the fanbase is a good representation of what the NFL GM's are also thinking.

Should this be the case, what in your minds would be "fair" compensation for him?

And this is relevent because.....

Fan bases are the ones who decide what players a team persues, signs or cuts. For example right before the Patriots did the final cut to 53, BB surveyed the fans on Patsfans.com and decided on whether to keep Cassel or Gurtz was 99% based on the strong support Cassel got from the fan base... oh wait maybe that is not how it happens.....

 

[flasox27]

Everyone keeps saying this but no one is saying how to force Cassel to sign a long term deal with another team if he prefers to be a free agent.

THe big problem with a franchise and trade is not finding a partner, it is convincing Cassel he will be better off signing with who the Patriots choose at the salary that team is willing to pay rather than letting the open market dictate his salary.

If Cassel gives any sign of hesitation, it would be suicide for the Patriots to franchise him. They can fit him under the cap, but barely. They will be able to sign no new free agents until his $14.7 millionn is off the cap.

Sorry, I know this is a fantasy wet dream for you franchise-and-trade guys to get something for nothing, but Cassel holds all the cards here.

Sorry to disagree but if the Pats can clear the space they can make the franchise and trade deal like KC and GB did last year.If they can't trade him they can always remove the tag.

 

[mesoslo]

when they remove the tag will they take a salary cap penalty?