Tuesday, January 6, 2009

The Franchise

Let's get one thing straight. Tom Brady is going to the Hall of Fame. He is one of the five greatest quarterbacks in the history of the NFL. And once he is healthy, he will once again be the starter for the New England Patriots. Unfortunately, no one knows when that will be. And until then, Matt Cassel will be behind center for potentially the entire 2009 season. In order for this to happen, the Patriots need to franchise him and keep him from becoming a free agent. They have from February 5th to the 19th to do so. Of course, this means he will be paid the average of the five highest QB salaries (roughly $14.4 million).

He is worth it.

"You're going to pay me how much?"

For one year anyway.

Just consider how far he's come from a guy some people thought would be cut after the preseason, to a dude who finished with an 89.4 rating, good for tenth in the league. He didn't throw a ton of touchdowns and he sometimes stayed in the pocket too long, but a "rookie" season of 11-5 is pretty damn good. Especially considering all the injuries that the team had to deal with.
And just briefly getting back to the "staying in the pocket" issue, dude was sacked 47 times, the most of any QB in the entire NFL. I don't care if you're Drew Bledsoe circa 2009, the O-line has to claim some responsibility. 47 TIMES!?! Plus, he finished 8th in passing yards, only threw 11 picks and led the team to four straight wins to end the year.

We all saw how bringing in some random dude (or douche in the Jets' situation) to jump in without having the slightest clue about how to run the team's offense works. Yeah, it sucks that Brady will most likely miss more time, but it's in the team's best interest to have Cassel stick around for another year. If Brady does make it back at any point in the 2009 campaign, the Patriots can certainly trade Cassel. But both players deserve the respect of keeping them both aboard by the front office/fans/media in an effort to avenge an 11-5 season without making the playoffs. (Although, the Chargers did win their first round game, so...)

And yes, I picked that picture on purpose. His brother Justin is in the White Sox farm system.