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New England Patriots
2. What might have led Texans to stop pursuit of Caserio: Houston Texans Chairman and CEO Cal McNair said in a statement on Friday that once Houston was "made aware of certain terms in Nick's contract with the Patriots," he informed New England owner Robert Kraft that the club would no longer pursue Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio as general manager. That was a significant development for the Patriots and sparks an obvious question: What are those terms? One theory that makes the most sense is that Caserio perhaps agreed not to pursue any openings when he signed his last extension with the Patriots. I could envision the Patriots asking for that consideration from Caserio in exchange for longer-term security and an increased salary.
If that is the case, one wonders if Caserio now regrets this based on the events of the past week.
3. Caserio's place with Patriots moving forward: One trickle-down effect of the Texans not pursuing Caserio for their GM position -- with the Patriots fighting to retain Caserio by initially filing tampering charges with the NFL on Wednesday before withdrawing them --
is how it might affect Caserio's desire to stay in New England long term. While I think Caserio is a pro's pro who has an uncanny ability to take emotion out of the equation (similar to coach Bill Belichick) -- and will smoothly transition back to his regular responsibilities in the short term -- developments over the past week seemed to reflect that
Caserio might be motivated to move on from New England when contractual obligations are no longer an obstacle. (Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reported that Caserio's contract expires after the 2020 NFL draft.) Along those lines, one of the things I was surprised to learn over the past week was that Caserio is listed as a client of influential agent Bob LaMonte. In the past, I believe Caserio has mostly represented himself in contract negotiations. LaMonte, who represents some of the biggest names in the business, also lists former Patriots character coach and current Texans executive vice president of team development Jack Easterby as a client.