Because there is more to the team than QB and a healthy Brady (which does not automatically imply "still elite") gets you more in trade fodder, helping THE TEAM. And you end up with a younger, fresher, solid and mobile QB.
I don't understand what is unclear. If Brady isn't healthy, he's untradable. If Brady can safely stand on grass and throw a football in practice, you find out if he's the best option by WATCHING HIM THROW AND MOVE. Seems simple enough.
If you would trade a healthy Brady, on the basis that you think that we can get more value in a trade than Brady brings to the team, then I guess that's just the core point where you disagree with every rational person on this board. Oh well.
Very good, now maybe you can clearly articulate a response to my last post.
You mean this one?
How does Brady start? The whole premise of not being able to trade him was that he can not pass a physical. Thus, Cassel is the starter until its determined that Brady is able to play, which nobody knows.
Are you saying that if Brady comes back before the trading deadline, Cassell will be traded?
Or are you saying we will only get compensation for him after the season?
Sure, I'll give it a shot. I've already made most of these points multiple times in this thread, but I guess you haven't read any of them.
If we franchise Cassel, his $14.5M salary hits the books when training camp starts. As a result, it is vitally important that he be traded prior to this point. Beyond that, the best value could be had for him before the draft, so that we can get some picks that will help us this year.
I've also found that a lot of arguments for considering trading Brady hinge on the idea that Cassel may not be almost as good, but he's good *enough*. My response is that he might be, but we have absolutely no evidence that this is the case. If you look at how he did over the course of the year, you'll realize that he benefited in a major way from playing against some of the worst defenses in the league, and that his performances against the good defenses that he played gave no indication that he's capable of playing well enough to win against them.
Against the Jets, Dolphins, Broncos, Raiders, and Cardinals: 17 touchdowns vs. 3 interceptions
Against the Colts, Chargers, and Steelers (perennial playoff teams): 0 touchdowns, 4 interceptions.
And in case you think that I might have been cherrypicking statistics, there were other bad results that I did not include, because I didn't think they were particularly relevant. For example, against the Rams and 49ers, he had 2 TDs and 4 INTs.
So let me reiterate this to put it into perspective: Cassel threw 23 TDs this year, and 17 of them came in 7 games against the Jets, Dolphins, Broncos, Raiders, and Cardinals. These are not good D's. In case someone plans on bringing up how the Cardinals are doing, I'd point out that this was at the absolute lowpoint of their season. They had been getting thrashed on a weekly basis. Cassel benefited from playing against a series of atrociously bad defenses.
He's a good, developing QB, but he isn't a third the player that Brady is, and will almost certainly never be half the player that Brady is. Will he get better? Of course he will. He'll probably get a lot better over the next several years.
But right now we have the best QB in the history of the NFL, in the prime of his career, who completed a season in which he set the touchdown record exactly one year ago, and who is coming back from an injury that QBs come back from successfully on a regular basis. Nobody has given anything resembling a valid reason for why you should trade that away in favor of a young, developing QB who had a good season against a series of horrendous defenses.
JSn's reasoning is that Cassel is a good enough QB for us to win a championship with a dominant defense. Not only do a disagree with this assertion, but, even if I did agree with it, I'd have to question how trading Brady would transform our defense into a dominant one. Draft picks are not automatic- there's a substantial risk in going from point A to point B.
On the other hand, Brady is capable of winning the Super Bowl with the offense and defense that we have
right now. I think a lot of you have been spoiled by the Belichick era, and think that the Patriots have this unlimited window of opportunity that will never close. Once the dynasty has tapered out, maybe you'll finally appreciate that opportunities like this are incredibly rare. The Patriots are good enough to win multiple Super Bowls right now, largely because they have both the best head coach and the best QB in the history of the NFL, both in the primes of their careers. You don't blow that up for the future.
Is that explanation sufficient for you?
