Pats trade QB Cassel to Chiefs

The New England Patriots are apparently confident that Tom Brady’s knee will be fully recovered by the time the NFL regular season starts.  It better be, since on Saturday they traded 2008 starter Matt Cassel to the Kansas City Chiefs. 

New England sent Cassel and linebacker Mike Vrabel to Kansas City in exchange for a 2^nd round draft choice.  While many Patriots fans scratched their head and the apparent one sided transaction, the team gave no explanation of why they received so little in return for a starting QB and a well respected veteran team leader.  The only thing that has come out of the New England camp thus far has been statements of praise from Pats head coach Bill Belichick who had this to say about Cassel:

"It is very easy to root for guys like Matt Cassel, who do everything the right way and flourish as a result. As much as we would have loved to continue working with Matt, we wish him nothing but the best as he takes this next step forward in his career."

He also had similar complimentary words for Vrabel:

"Mike Vrabel epitomizes everything a coach could seek in a professional football player: toughness, intelligence, play, leadership, versatility and consistency at the highest level. Behind the scenes, Mike's wit and personality is one of the things we have all enjoyed about coming to work every day."

Needless to say, Chiefs GM Scott Pioli was happy that his team could obtain two solid players while essentially giving up nothing in return:

"I have a long history with both players. Mike and Matt are men that I respect both personally and professionally. I look forward to having them as new members of the Chiefs family."

Cassel was to be a free agent after the 2008 season, but the Patriots put the ‘franchise’ tag on him meaning that any team who wanted to sign him away had to give New England two first round draft choices in return.  The flip side was that it left New England on the hook for $14.5 million in 2009 should they have decided to keep Cassel around.  That was obviously too high a price for what they’re hoping will be a backup for Tom Brady, so they really had no choice but to let Cassel go and hope for the best. 

Brady last spoke publically about his recovery on February 17^th, where he insisted that everything was progressing well and that he was on target to start New England’s regular season opener.  For the sake of the Patriots and their fans, here’s hoping he’s right.