Did the Pats make a bad Deal?

With the details of the trade official, it looks like the Patriots may not have gotten as much as they could have for Matt Cassel.  The fact that Pats where rushing to make this trade to get Vrabel off their books before he got a $1million roster bonus (they could have released him without penalty but it appears that wanted to do Mike a favor) hurt the return on this deal.  Word has emerged that the Tampa Bay Bucs wanted to make a 3 team deal that would have sent Cassel to Denver, Jay Culter to Tampa and the Pats would have gotten a 1st & 3rd round pick in this year’s draft.   Columnist are thinking that the Pats got ripped off or even made a sweetheart deal due to the relationship between Pioli & Belicheck (that conspiracy theory came from Mega-Douche Jay Mariotti).  ESPN had asked Floyd Reese (now an adviser with the Pats) and Mike Lombardi of National Football Post to put a value on Matt Cassel and here is what they said:

Here’s what Reese said back then: “It would have to be multiple choices and very high choices to get Cassel. Two first-rounders, or a one and a two and a three … It’ll be something very, very expensive.”

Whatever the Giants gave up for Eli has to be the market,” Lombardi said. “It’s got to be a first-rounder, and not the 22nd or 24th pick in the draft. It has to be a substantial one and one that keeps on giving.”

 

The market could have changed in the two months that has past since these quotes, but the Tampa Bay rumor tends to add credence to each of these quotes. 

 

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