Neither you nor MG are 100% correct.
The Pats have more leverage than Asante does. Asante's options are now limited to slightly less than half the league if he wants to sign with another team. If Asante wants to play, he has several options. 1,2,&3 involve signing with the Pats either to the tender, a 1 year deal or a new contract. The 4th option is to pony up with one of these offers he's supposedly gotten from another team and hope that team and the Pats can work out a deal for compensation. The 5th option and the one that hurts BOTH parties if for him to sit out until some point in the future.
As mentioned by numerous people, Asante stands to lose 485K per game he sits out. That hurts him in his pocket book and it hurts the Pats. If he waits until week 10, he loses 4.85 million, but takes home just under 2.94 million. Though, if he gets hurt, he kills any chances for his big pay day next year. And, the likelyhood of him getting hurt is significantly greater because he wasn't in TC and wasn't with the team staying in game shape.
It hurts the team because they don't have one of their better players and he's a distraction the entire time because the media will make him a distraction.
Now, the Patriots can't exactly shop Asante's services because Asante is the one who has to agree to a contract with whichever team he goes to. And Asante can block a trade to a lousy team like Oakland. However, at the same time, the Patriots don't have to accept a trade offer from another team that they feel doesn't meets their value of Samuel. And that value can be measured, almost directly, by the contract that the other team wants to sign Samuel to.
Until such time that Samuel either gets a team to pony up a contract and the compensation that the Patriots agree to or until the Pats are willing to sign Samuel to a contract to the liking of both parties, there will be a stalemate.
That being said, there aren't a lot of teams (15 including the Patriots) that can afford Samuel without doing some Salary Cap adjustments. And, as the time gets closer to camp, it will be harder for teams to sign Samuel and it will be harder for the Pats to get adequate value for him.