Babb: Chiefs sign QB Cassel to multi-year deal

[Tribal Warfare]

Chiefs sign QB Cassel to multi-year deal
By KENT BABB
The Kansas City Star

The decision has been made, the contract is signed, and the Chiefs have their potential franchise quarterback locked up for the long haul.

Kansas City signed Matt Cassel, a 27-year-old passer with a mountain of expectations ahead and a grain of experience behind him, to a multi-year contract that makes him the team’s face well into the next decade.

“I am honored and humbled,” Cassel said, “by the faith that the Chiefs organization has displayed in me.”

Faith is what the Chiefs appear to have plenty of in their new quarterback and how he’ll handle shouldering the praise and the criticism of a team deprived of recent success and a fan base starved for progress. Before taking over for Tom Brady in the New England Patriots’ first game of 2008, Cassel hadn’t started a game since 1999, his senior season at California’s Chatsworth High School.

It had been a long time for the 6-foot-4 right-hander, sitting at the University of Southern California behind a pair of Heisman Trophy winners and, after being a seventh-round pick of the Patriots in 2005, behind two-time Super Bowl MVP Brady. Then Brady was injured, Cassel won 11 games, was traded in March to the Chiefs, and now he’s Kansas City’s man for a lot of years.

The Chiefs didn’t release contract terms in an announcement Tuesday, and Cassel’s agent, David Dunn, was out of his California-based office and didn’t return phone messages. The deal reportedly will keep Cassel in Kansas City through the 2014 season and is worth up to $63 million, including $28 million guaranteed.

“Since Matt arrived in Kansas City,” Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli said in a team-issued release, “he has embraced the team and the community. His work ethic, his ability and competitive presence is what we expect from our players.”

Cassel is about to learn a thing or two about expectations. He already was seen as an upgrade over several years of questionable Chiefs quarterbacks, but now he’s at the center of a high-stakes gamble that will influence the Chiefs’ immediate future and could define how Pioli is viewed as the team’s top decision-maker.

Pioli bypassed the option of allowing Cassel to play the 2009 season as an audition of sorts, fulfilling the one-year, $14.53 million contract he was due after New England made Cassel its franchise player before the trade. If Cassel couldn’t handle the pressure of shouldering the team’s load, it would have been an expensive but low-risk way to find out Cassel’s measure. Instead, the Chiefs are taking their chances on Cassel, and a man who has walked a similar path said Tuesday that Kansas City’s confidence in the young quarterback will pay dividends.

Rich Gannon is an NFL analyst now, but he was once a stifled quarterback, too, stuck on the Chiefs’ bench behind Elvis Grbac in the late 1990s. Gannon signed with Oakland after the 1998 season, later taking the Raiders to a Super Bowl and being named MVP in 2002. He said the Raiders’ faith, after dealing with the Chiefs’ uncertainty, gave him the confidence to become an elite passer.

“It wasn’t so much the money,” Gannon said. “It was more that it was finally my football team. I was able to stand up and speak out loud and take control of a team. That’s really critical. It has to be your team. You can’t have two guys going back and forth, and that’s what the Chiefs have had.

“That’s really what has held that team back.”

Gannon said he saw all he needed from Cassel last year when the youngster filled in for Brady, doing it with the poise of a longtime starter. Gannon said he wouldn’t have been surprised if Cassel had wilted under the pressure of being Brady’s fill-in on a team with yearly Super Bowl expectations, but Cassel just kept on rolling.

“You’re looking at a guy who’s young, who has proven just in one year of play that he is very capable,” Gannon said.

Gannon is among a long list of Chiefs passers who have fallen short of being Kansas City’s long-term answer at quarterback. Gannon hasn’t forgotten that former Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer passed over Gannon and elected to start Grbac after a long absence, at a time when, Gannon said Tuesday, Grbac “wasn’t prepared” for the responsibility. Other than a few temporary flashes along the way, Gannon said, the Chiefs haven’t possessed an elite, long-term quarterback since Len Dawson retired in 1975.

“Trent Green was probably the best chance that they had,” Gannon said.

Now, after so many years and so many failed experiments, the Chiefs have another chance to cash in on potential, same as Cassel already did when he signed that contract. Gannon admitted Tuesday that Pioli and the Chiefs are gambling, but Gannon said Kansas City made the right play.

“It’s smart,” he said. “You have to go out there and get your franchise quarterback. It might be premature to start calling Matt Cassel a franchise quarterback. But it’s one of the critical pieces of the puzzle.”

[orange]

Originally Posted by Just Passin' By

Pioli has been around Cassel from the very beginning of Cassel's NFL career. It's very likely that Pioli has formed an opinion about Cassel's work ethic and personality independent of any 'contract drive' motivation you might assign during the course of this offseason. It's not as if this is just some guy off the streets getting thrown cash for just showing up.

One thing Pioli has never seen is how Cassel deals with losing.

He gets to find out this year.

We do know he's okay with being shoved to the bench.

[Red Dawg]

This was done partially because Pioli wants stability. There will be no looking over the shoulder this seasson or the next. Matt has been given the job. He's smart, mobile with a strong arm and he loves football.

Drafting a QB number 1 would have been the same. At least this way they have already seen him in action.

[talastan]

Hello Kansas City!!

[CoMoChief]

Originally Posted by ChiefJustice

That right there is good enough for me.

So what thats coach speak, unless you're Jamarcus Russell.

[L.A. Chieffan]

u think if he didnt have the tape on the helmet the coaches would forget his name?

[talastan]

Originally Posted by talastan

Hello Kansas City!!

Hey Josh, sorry it didn't workout.

[FAX]

Originally Posted by Bwana

I just hope we can pick up another lineman or two before the season starts, or he is going to get killed. Another WR wouldn't hurt either. Right now I hate to say it, but I don't think we have the tools for him to get the job done.

Amen to that, Mr. Bwana. From where I sit (which is pretty far away and in an essentially clueless state of mind), I haven't seen an upgrade to the o-line that is sufficient to allow me to imagine we'll be much better than last year. It's really surprising, too. When he came on board, I really thought that Pioli would be all over the o-line problems like a guy monkey on a girl monkey. I have to believe, though, that he's seen enough - both on tape and in OTAs - to know what they're capable of ... so maybe he thinks they're good enough ... I really don't get it.

FAX

[Bwana]

Originally Posted by FAX

Amen to that, Mr. Bwana. From where I sit (which is pretty far away and in an essentially clueless state of mind), I haven't seen an upgrade to the o-line that is sufficient to allow me to imagine we'll be much better than last year. It's really surprising, too. When he came on board, I really thought that Pioli would be all over the o-line problems like a guy monkey on a girl monkey. I have to believe, though, that he's seen enough - both on tape and in OTAs - to know what they're capable of ... so maybe he thinks they're good enough ... I really don't get it.

FAX

The other problem I see with the line Mr. FAX, is the fact that they couldn't open up holes very well for Johnson either. If they can't open up holes for our RB's and can't block well enough to keep the DL on the other team from charging through, it's going to get ugly fast. A lot of three and outs, a QB that won't last many games, a defense that is going to be on the field way to much and a punter that is going to wear out his hip from punting all the time. The season hasn't started yet, so I hope we are able to get an OL or two in here to change some of that.

[FAX]

Originally Posted by Bwana

The other problem I see with the line Mr. FAX, is the fact that they couldn't open up holes very well for Johnson either. If they can't open up holes for our RB's and can't block well enough to keep the DL on the other team from charging through, it's going to get ugly fast. A lot of three and outs, a QB that won't last many games, a defense that is going to be on the field way to much and a punter that is going to wear out his hip from punting all the time. The season hasn't started yet, so I hope we are able to get an OL or two in here to change some of that.

Very true about the run game, Mr. Bwana. It's so difficult to really know what they could be thinking.

Still, we have to keep in mind that He Who Can't Tie His Shoes was the HC and, no doubt, had a negative, overall effect on the o-line play. Moving from a more traditional offense to the semi-spread, for example, surely caused problems. I mean, it's difficult for a line to "gel" when they're experimenting in live games with new schemes just to try and get a first down.

Maybe ... just maybe ... Pioli believes that was part of the problem and that, with sufficient time and a more intelligent approach, these guys can be more effective. I know it's a stretch, but it's hopeful, at least.

FAX

[TEX]

What a difference a year makes! Thank God no more Croyle talk...

[milkman]

Originally Posted by Bwana

The other problem I see with the line Mr. FAX, is the fact that they couldn't open up holes very well for Johnson either. If they can't open up holes for our RB's and can't block well enough to keep the DL on the other team from charging through, it's going to get ugly fast. A lot of three and outs, a QB that won't last many games, a defense that is going to be on the field way to much and a punter that is going to wear out his hip from punting all the time. The season hasn't started yet, so I hope we are able to get an OL or two in here to change some of that.

While the O-Line sucked, another problem in the running game is LJ's lack of vision and patience.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

I can not deny a Gannon endorsement. Will-power.....breaking down....must accept....number...7....

[Micjones]

I'd like to see a significant RT and WR signing before the season starts.
But I'm fairly confident the Offensive Line will be better.

Goff's presence helps both Niswanger and McIntosh.
Albert will be 1-year better.

The line will be improved. Enough to help Cassel stay upright more often than not? Enough to help LJ rack up 1200 rushing yards this season? That remains to be seen?

[Blick]

I think Goff is a significant upgrade over Jones at RG, not because Goff is that great or anything, but because Jones was just absolutely terrible.

So, that'll help.

Then, like Micjones said, Albert is going to be a year better as well.

I also think that Chan and Haley will put Cassel in a good position to succeed with the offense. I think we'll see a lot of quick throws to get Bowe opportunities for YAC and help our O-line.

I think the running game will be fine. It wasn't that bad last year.

Also, considering our need for another weapon, if we don't sign anybody else, I think we'll find more ways to get Charles the ball. He's dangerous in space.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by Blick

I think Goff is a significant upgrade over Jones at RG, not because Goff is that great or anything, but because Jones was just absolutely terrible.

So, that'll help.

Then, like Micjones said, Albert is going to be a year better as well.

I also think that Chan and Haley will put Cassel in a good position to succeed with the offense. I think we'll see a lot of quick throws to get Bowe opportunities for YAC and help our O-line.

I think the running game will be fine. It wasn't that bad last year.

Also, considering our need for another weapon, if we don't sign anybody else, I think we'll find more ways to get Charles the ball. He's dangerous in space.

As long as they stop throwing MOTHER****ING SCREEN PASSES TO BOWE. I had a significant rant on this awhile back.

I agree with you on Charles though. I hope he gets some touches in space. NOT UP THE MIDDLE (Herm you goddamned mother****ing sack of horseshit! I ****ing hate you!)