Matt Cassel has won the National Football League equivalent of the lottery. By signing the non-exclusive franchise tag and the one-year tender worth $14.65 million, the perennial reserve has become one of the league’s highest earning players.
The looming question is, why pay Cassel so much if all he is going to do is return to his role as Tom Brady’s backup? The All-Pro Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury in the Patriot’s opening game in which he tore both his anterior and medial cruciate ligament. His future was further complicated by a post-operation infection, which risked damaging the restructured ligaments.
Brady has insisted to the American press that his rehabilitation is going well and that he is on schedule to be ready for the 2009 Preseason.
But the Patriots, who are notoriously tight-lipped about injury-related matters, have told the media almost nothing about Tom Brady’s knee and whether it will be ready for another Super Bowl run next year.
Fans and pundits alike have been left in the dark, and it is just for this reason that the franchising of Matt Cassel is so intriguing. What else can we draw from it besides the possibility that Brady’s knee is not doing well? The hard truth for the Patriots is that Brady may not only be out next year, but his injury may have forced an early retirement…
$14 million may be an expensive insurance policy, but by most accounts it is entirely worth it considering the way Cassel lit it up this season.
Huge gamble
Cassel’s journey to the top provides for a bizarre story. His college years were spent at the University of Southern California as the backup for the Heisman Trophy winning Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart. Cassel never even started a single game at quarterback, and yet, because he managed to impress NFL scouts, the Patriots decided to gamble on him late in the 2004 Draft.
Cassel’s first three seasons as a pro involved an unhealthy amount of ‘clip-board duty’ and ‘bench warming’. In his claim to the title ‘NFL’s most untested backup’ he was unrivaled.
As the 2008 Preseason approached, a Brady ankle injury – the same one that hurt his mobility in the previous year’s Super Bowl – thrust Cassel into the role of starter. To say that his performance was unimpressive might be the understatement of the century. A bleacherreport.com article entitled The End of Matt Cassel had this to say of his performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers: “Well, Brady’s hurt and Cassel has had to play with the first team. And good God, he’s awful.”
Thankfully for Patriot nation, Brady was ready to resume his position in the season’s opening game.
A few minutes into the first quarter, though, Brady fell to the ground gripping his left knee in agony after suffering a tremendous blow from Chief’s Safety Bernard Pollard.
Big shoes to fill
The lacklustre Cassel’s emergence onto the field was met with gasps. Matters were made worse by the fact that Cassel and the Patriot’s offensive took over possession practically in their own end zone. To everyone’s surprise, in his first play Casssel tossed a perfect ball 50 yards down field to Randy Moss. For Patriots fans, an uneasy mixture of elation and confusion ensued.
The $14.65 that Cassel will earn next year might indicate that from this moment forward the youngster was a natural. Anything but the case…
Despite a nice toss in the end zone to Moss, Cassel quickly resumed his dodgy quarterbacking. As the season progressed, there would be times when Cassel would be utterly lost, and matters where not helped by his offensive line which was simply unable to provide him with any protection.
Cassel was not Tom Brady, and the Patriot’s mediocre record indicated as much. Sure, Cassel showed slow but steady progress, but this was not enough. That is, at least until his outburst against the New York Jets in November.
Magic man
The Patriots may have lost the game, but it was the one that showed that Cassel had some magic in him, too. Down 24-6, Cassel exploded for 400 yards passing and three touchdowns. But most impressive was all was his game-tying drive late in the fourth quarter capped off by a magnificent touchdown pass to Moss as time expired.
The next week against the Miami Dolphins was a win for the Patriots and the second 400- yard passing performance for Cassel in as many games. Guess how many career 400-yard games Brady has had? Zero…
In the final quarter of the season, Cassel not only led the Patriots to four of five victories, he showed composure and football smarts that took his refined mobility, arm-strength, and accuracy to an elite level. Matt Cassel the reserve had become Matt Cassel the all-star.
So if Brady is not ready for next season, the Patriots have secured for themselves a top quarterback in Cassel. But some pundits have argued that paying Cassel $14.65 million is not necessarily about Tom Brady. The reality is that Cassel’s play made him a hot commodity. So if the Pats want to keep them – great. But if they decide to trade him to another team, he will demand something, or someone, big in return who will add to the Patriot’s already stacked arsenal.