NBCSportsBlog: Belichick talks Cassel trade

[booger]

Thought this was interesting with all the ****ler drama going on.


Belichick talks Cassel trade
Posted by Gregg Rosenthal : Thursday, March 19, 2009 6:40 PM
Bill Belichick spoke on WEEI in Boston Thursday, touching on the dominant stories of the New England off-season: the Matt Cassel trade and Julius Peppers trade rumors.

Let's start with Cassel. Asked if the Patriots ever had an offer on the table for a first- and third-round pick, like ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported, Belichick flatly said, "They never made that offer to me."

Belichick indicated, in fact, there were no concrete last-minute offers. Without getting too specific, he said that he was in touch with many teams after Cassel signed his franchise tender. He implied that the rest of the league knew Cassel's situation and had plenty of chances to make a deal.

He dismissed suggestions of favoritism towards Chiefs GM Scott Pioli. "I have all the respect in the world for Scott and what he's done. [But] I work for the Patriots. I have no loyalty to anybody or any team other than the Patriots."

Few would argue with that.

When pressed about Denver's involvement in a possible three-way trade, Belichick spoke in generalities. But he rhetorically asked how many three-team trades actually get done in the NFL.

"Getting a contract done, getting a trade done, getting all that, to think that's going to happen in five minutes in a situation like that that came up that weekend -- which is what I think some people have kind of put out there -- I don't think that's really accurate. It just doesn't really happen like that in this league."

Reading between the lines, Belichick didn't have time to wait for Jay Cutler and/or Matt Cassel to work out contracts with a new team. That brings agents into the mix, in addition to a new team, and could delay the process indefinitely.

He alluded to all the rumored deals that were out there, indicating they were more speculative and hypothetical rather than concrete.

Time was of the essence. Belichick made it clear that a long-term deal for Cassel was not an option, and that New England's recent acquisitions were made possible by his trade.

Belichick took one (pick) in the hand over two in the bush.

Back with Belichick's comments about Peppers in a bit.


http://blogs.nbcsports.com/home/arch...sel-trade.html

[wild1]

maybe cassel had a say in where he wanted to go? after all i doubt many teams would have traded for him if his chances of signing long term were not great

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by wild1

maybe cassel had a say in where he wanted to go? after all i doubt many teams would have traded for him if his chances of signing long term were not great

He didn't have a DIRECT say, but you're right that he had a pseudo-veto. No team would trade a high 2nd or 1st if he had stated he would be unwilling to sign a long term deal.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Mile High Mania

I have no idea how one might find that information...

Hey I'm here for you.

Broncos are at like 19MM under now, so that part would not have been an issue.

These numbers are as of March 18th, and would not have included any deals from the day or two prior to that.

AVerage cap space is like $15MM per team. NFL wide there's half a billion dollars of cap space.



Tampa Bay $39.64 million
Philadelphia $38.92 million
Kansas City $34.63 million
San Francisco $30.77 million
Green Bay $29.88 million
Chicago $28.62 million
Cleveland $22.02 million
Minnesota $21.91 million
Jacksonville $21.29 million
Denver $19.22 million
Cincinnati $16.35 million
N.Y. Jets $14.33 million
Tennessee $13.99 million
Miami $13.86 million
Houston $13.69 million
Atlanta $13.55 million
St. Louis $12.42 million
Detroit $11.78 million
Dallas $10.88 million
Oakland $10.35 million
Buffalo $10.30 million
San Diego $8.56 million
Indianapolis $7.15 million
N.Y. Giants $6.78 million
Washington $6.57 million
New England $6.07 million
Baltimore $5.99 million
Seattle $5.87 million
Carolina $5.11 million
Arizona $4.14 million
Pittsburgh $3.91 million
New Orleans $1.38 million

[Mile High Mania]

Interesting... thanks for the view, the first year deals for those 15 new Broncos apparently are very friendly.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Mile High Mania

Interesting... thanks for the view, the first year deals for those 15 new Broncos apparently are very friendly.

Yes, apparently, though you did chew up 10MM of space, which is a healthy amount of room. Signing bonuses are guaranteed money and get prorated, not put onto the cap this year, which also has an impact.

Figure mebbe $7'ish million for your rookies if you have a full slate of picks, which leaves a still very respectable $12MM to spend on whomever you like out there.

The problem is that too many teams have lots of cap room, so you don't have an inherent advantage over the rest of the NFL or anything by virtue of your space.

[Buehler445]

Interesting article. I'm surprised BB is even talking to the media about this.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Mr. Krab]

Originally Posted by T-post Tom

"I work for the Patriots. I have no loyalty to anybody or any team other than the Patriots."

That pretty much sums it up. So much for the conspiracy theories.

Good, that opens Pioli up to make another trade.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Interesting article. I'm surprised BB is even talking to the media about this.
Posted via Mobile Device

He gives interviews to WEEI here in Boston all the time during the season, but he was somewhat unusually open about this.

If anyone cares, they can listen to it online. Let me know if you want and I will post the link.

heck -- just go to weei.com and you'll find it.

[Amnorix]

FWIW, I'll also note that he had a few comments during his interview about how the top of the draft is a bit of a mixed blessing. You can't really get good value there.

He also discussed some rules stuff relating to franchise, tag/trade etc. It was long, though. a 42 minute interview. I listened to it last night.

[orange]

Originally Posted by booger

Let's start with Cassel. Asked if the Patriots ever had an offer on the table for a first- and third-round pick, like ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported, Belichick flatly said, "They never made that offer to me."

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Interesting choice of words.

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Yes. Two things occurred to me when he said that:

1. they could have made the offer to another in the Patriots' organization or, more likely:

2. they could easily have made a POSSIBLE deal offer. "If we can get Tampa Bay on board and if we can work out a deal with Cassell for a long term deal, then we'll give you a 1 and a 3."

Or "I don't want to call Chris Mortensen a liar, BUT..."

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by orange

Or "I don't want to call Chris Mortensen a liar, BUT..."

or "i dont want to make myself look bad"

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

or "i dont want to make myself look bad"

It's pretty clear to most of us now why BB couldn't/wouldn't wait for Denver to pull together the deal. Mortensen might not have been a liar at all, but the accusations that BB was just doing this deal for his buddy Pioli or whatever are looking mroe than a bit silly.