Sacrilege

There’s a lot of talk these days about Matt Cassell’s future.  He’s been playing very well lately, and as a free agent at the end of the season, he’s likely to have multiple lucrative offers from teams that need a quarterback.

But is it certain that Cassell will have to leave the Patriots to cash in?

People seem to have forgotten that Belichick has already replaced two popular star quarterbacks with unknowns. He got rid of Bernie Kosar in Cleveland, then replaced Drew Bledsoe with Tom Brady in New England.  The parallels between the Bledsoe/Brady situation and the current Brady/Cassell case are quite close.  Brady has been more successful that Bledsoe ever was, but can we be sure that he will come back all the way from his serious knee injury?  Belichick has gotten rid of numerous other high-priced older players (Ty Law, Lawyer Malloy, …) in order to free up cap space.  It is not out of the question that it’s now Brady’s turn to be shown the door.  

And maybe that’s the right decision.  Even if you think Brady is better than Cassell, is he so much better that freeing up Brady’s salary for defensive help is out of the question?  If the Patriot offense continues to roll against the Pittsburg defense this week, then things might get interesting.