Cassell Tagged By Patriots

The new England Patriots have decided to use the NFL's franchise tag for just the 5th time, and the first time on an offensive player. The franchise tag has been applied to QB Matt Cassell, the previously tagged players were Adam Vinatieri (2002 and 2005), Tebucky Jones (2003) and Asante Samuel (2007).

This move has been highly speculated since the end of the season, and for different reasons. Some people have said that Cassell would be franchised in order to guarantee compensation for him rather than lose him in free agency, others have speculated that he would be franchised as insurance for Tom Brady who is recovering from a knee injury.

One thing is clear, with the franchise tag number for a QB this season set at $14.65 Million, it will be difficult for the Patriots to justify paying 2 quarterbacks a combined $29 Million, especially when the back-up Cassell will be earning more than the starter Tom Brady.

As mentioned earlier, many people are assuming that the Patriots have franchise tagged Cassell in order to trade him before the draft, which would give New England a fair amount of compensation, but as an alternative I think it might be wise for the Patriots to shop Brady as well this off-season.

Brady would garner a much larger compensation for the Patriots and Matt Cassell played fairly well down the stretch last season. Look at the San Diego Chargers last season, they allowed Michael Turner to leave for Atlanta and stuck with an aging, injury prone LaDainian Tomlinson. If San Diego had the opprotunity to do it all over again is there anyone out there who thinks they would have kept L.T. over Turner? It could be the same situation with Cassell and Brady in 2009. Brady is coming off a knee injury that required season ending surgery and then extra post-op surgeries to deal with a serious staph infection.

The Patriots are known for making wise personnel decision, I am interested to see how this one turns out.