Dirk
04-06-2009, 08:14 AM
The article really isn't all that good but I thought I would share it....
Why Broncos Got More for Cutler Than Patriots Did for Cassel
Posted Apr 05, 2009 8:00PM By Ryan Wilson (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Bears, Broncos, Chiefs, Patriots
When the Patriots sent Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel to Kansas City for the Chiefs' 34th-overall pick in March, sports-bloggin' Spooky Mulders took notice. The thinking: if Cassel, recently franchised by New England and coming off an unexpectedly impressive 11-win season in place of injured Tom Brady, was as good as everybody claimed, certainly he was worth more than a second-round pick, even a high one.
Then, last week, the Bears traded two first-rounders, a third-rounder and Kyle Orton for Jay Cutler, prompting the conspiracy theorists to convene an emergency meeting.
I don't consider myself part of the tin-foil-hat crowd, but playing devil's avocado for a moment, here's something to contemplate: using the NFL draft value chart, the Broncos will receive at least 1594 points (the 18th and 99th picks in this month's draft, and no less than the 32nd pick in 2010), and the Patriots have 560 points (the 34th pick in '09).
The difference is 1034 points, or the No. 16 pick. There are complications -- Vrabel and Orton were also part of the respective trades -- but even if we assign Vrabel no value because of age and declining ability, and give Orton 112 points (the Bears selected him in the fourth round of the '05 draft, and that's the maximum value a fourth-rounder can receive), it still works out to 922 points, or the No. 18 pick.
So, clearly, the Patriots are up to something and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell should immediately investigate, right? Eh, no. For starters, the draft value chart is a crude instrument, haphazardly put together by then-Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson back in the 1990s. There are certainly better ways to measure "value." But more than that, circumstances dictated what New England could get for Cassel. The Boston Globe's Mike Reiss explains:
1) Denver not an option. I go on the assumption that the Patriots would not trade Cassel to the Broncos. Even if the Broncos offered a first-round pick, I think keeping Cassel away from Josh McDaniels was a priority to the Patriots (they didn't want their system so easily duplicated by an AFC contender with a former coach-quarterback in place). ...
2) Timing was imperative. The Patriots had $29.2 million of their salary cap tied up in Cassel and Tom Brady, two players at the same position. They had to move fast to clear the Cassel space (they had about $2 million worth of space at the start of free agency), so they could make other moves like Fred Taylor, Chris Baker, Joey Galloway, etc. ...
3) View of Cassel around the NFL. One statistic that other clubs looked at very closely was that 55 percent of the Patriots' passing offense in 2008 came after the catch, easily an NFL high. Teams like the Buccaneers, Lions and Bears looked at their own personnel, realized they didn't have the same structure in place (no Moss, Welker, Faulk), and had reservations about Cassel, whose body of work was limited to one year....
I suppose you could argue that if Bill Belichick was hellbent on making sure his former offensive coordinator didn't get Cassel, then it doesn't make much sense that he would turn around and send him to Kansas City where former Patriots vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli now works. The difference: McDaniels has an intimate knowledge of New England's defense; Pioli's job is to stock the roster with the best possible players. One's a coach, the other works in the front office.
Reiss also pointed out that Cassel's $14.6 million salary was a concern for some teams, and Vrabel -- at first thought to be a "deal sweetner" -- was in fact an opportunity for New England to unload an aging player on someone else.
None of this means that the Patriots couldn't have gotten more than the 34th selection for Cassel, just that, given the situation Reiss describes, a high second-round pick isn't nearly as scandalous as some people want it to be. Of course, if Cassel has success early in Kansas City -- especially if Cutler struggles in Chicago -- we'll no doubt be hearing more about this. Can't wait.
http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2009/04/05/why-broncos-got-more-for-cutler-than-patriots-did-for-cassel/
***edited because I forgot the link***
Why Broncos Got More for Cutler Than Patriots Did for Cassel
Posted Apr 05, 2009 8:00PM By Ryan Wilson (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Bears, Broncos, Chiefs, Patriots
When the Patriots sent Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel to Kansas City for the Chiefs' 34th-overall pick in March, sports-bloggin' Spooky Mulders took notice. The thinking: if Cassel, recently franchised by New England and coming off an unexpectedly impressive 11-win season in place of injured Tom Brady, was as good as everybody claimed, certainly he was worth more than a second-round pick, even a high one.
Then, last week, the Bears traded two first-rounders, a third-rounder and Kyle Orton for Jay Cutler, prompting the conspiracy theorists to convene an emergency meeting.
I don't consider myself part of the tin-foil-hat crowd, but playing devil's avocado for a moment, here's something to contemplate: using the NFL draft value chart, the Broncos will receive at least 1594 points (the 18th and 99th picks in this month's draft, and no less than the 32nd pick in 2010), and the Patriots have 560 points (the 34th pick in '09).
The difference is 1034 points, or the No. 16 pick. There are complications -- Vrabel and Orton were also part of the respective trades -- but even if we assign Vrabel no value because of age and declining ability, and give Orton 112 points (the Bears selected him in the fourth round of the '05 draft, and that's the maximum value a fourth-rounder can receive), it still works out to 922 points, or the No. 18 pick.
So, clearly, the Patriots are up to something and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell should immediately investigate, right? Eh, no. For starters, the draft value chart is a crude instrument, haphazardly put together by then-Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson back in the 1990s. There are certainly better ways to measure "value." But more than that, circumstances dictated what New England could get for Cassel. The Boston Globe's Mike Reiss explains:
1) Denver not an option. I go on the assumption that the Patriots would not trade Cassel to the Broncos. Even if the Broncos offered a first-round pick, I think keeping Cassel away from Josh McDaniels was a priority to the Patriots (they didn't want their system so easily duplicated by an AFC contender with a former coach-quarterback in place). ...
2) Timing was imperative. The Patriots had $29.2 million of their salary cap tied up in Cassel and Tom Brady, two players at the same position. They had to move fast to clear the Cassel space (they had about $2 million worth of space at the start of free agency), so they could make other moves like Fred Taylor, Chris Baker, Joey Galloway, etc. ...
3) View of Cassel around the NFL. One statistic that other clubs looked at very closely was that 55 percent of the Patriots' passing offense in 2008 came after the catch, easily an NFL high. Teams like the Buccaneers, Lions and Bears looked at their own personnel, realized they didn't have the same structure in place (no Moss, Welker, Faulk), and had reservations about Cassel, whose body of work was limited to one year....
I suppose you could argue that if Bill Belichick was hellbent on making sure his former offensive coordinator didn't get Cassel, then it doesn't make much sense that he would turn around and send him to Kansas City where former Patriots vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli now works. The difference: McDaniels has an intimate knowledge of New England's defense; Pioli's job is to stock the roster with the best possible players. One's a coach, the other works in the front office.
Reiss also pointed out that Cassel's $14.6 million salary was a concern for some teams, and Vrabel -- at first thought to be a "deal sweetner" -- was in fact an opportunity for New England to unload an aging player on someone else.
None of this means that the Patriots couldn't have gotten more than the 34th selection for Cassel, just that, given the situation Reiss describes, a high second-round pick isn't nearly as scandalous as some people want it to be. Of course, if Cassel has success early in Kansas City -- especially if Cutler struggles in Chicago -- we'll no doubt be hearing more about this. Can't wait.
http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2009/04/05/why-broncos-got-more-for-cutler-than-patriots-did-for-cassel/
***edited because I forgot the link***