Its a simple question, whats best for the team?
A. Keep Cassel and pay him almost 15 million to almost certainly carry a clipboard on the sidelines during a game.
B. Make a trade free up alot of cap space and use the saved money to resign probowl players such as Wilfork, Mankins, Seymour, use the extra draft picks which we would get for trading Cassel and help rebuild a championship defense.
BB always does whats best for the team, keeping Cassel for that amount of money is not in the best interest of the team bottom line.
A valid question, though I believe it to be a little more complicated in scope:
-- "A" addresses one position, obviously a critical one, but BB needs to repeat his 2008 decision tree weighing the likely losses while developing younger players for the long term. O'Connell/Gutierrez at QB are two, but does BB give the young OLBs more reps to speed their development? It's looking like a given there will be young safeties to bring along. If Brady isn't ready, does BB "need" Cassel as the best available option to keep the team competitive while the youngsters are being worked up?
-- "B" talks about clearing cap space for extending top players, as well as the extra pick(s) from a Cassel trade, a desirable goal. The question needs to go beyond immediate Salary Cap benefits and retention of current roster stars, it needs to ponder what an extra pick(s) might do in the 2010 draft, for example; I'm projecting a fairly strong crop of 3-4 DL, spear-headed by Alabama's Mt. Cody and Nebraska's Boy Named Suh. Another factor is the uncapped year rules limiting playoff teams during Free Agency; draft picks in 2010 may be even more critical for restocking the team if stud Free Agents are unavailable under the new rules.
-- Salary cap room can be created by extending veterans with backloaded contracts to lower their cap hits. This may be the way to go "if" BB thinks having Cassel as his starting QB is the best option to protect the team while the youngsters develop.
-- Trading Cassel makes more sense when you look at 2010 and consider how you might need to rebuild through the draft.
-- Keeping Matt **better than Steve Young** Cassel can seriously be considered with an uncapped 2010 pending. However risky it may appear "on paper," it is a legitimate business option for the team's future - though it has the drawback of 'stunting' the growth of Kevin O'Connell.
I personally believe Tommy is on track for his return and keeping Matt isn't a critical need with the team of O'Connell/Gutierrez developing in his shadow. In the end, trading Matt isn't a 2009 focus, it's a 2010 focus, an insurance policy for an uncapped season with restrictive rules for playoff teams - buy the policy.