Jan 2nd 2009 1:45PM by Adam Gretz (author feed)
Filed under: Patriots, NFL Free AgencyThere’s no question Tom Brady’s knee injury way back in week 1 was bad news for pretty much everybody involved with the New England Patriots. Well, everybody except for Matt Cassel, who is set to enter a new tax bracket this offseason.

After being somewhat of a surprise to make the team out of training camp — he was awful in the preseason — the fourth-year pro who hadn’t started a football game since he was a senior in high school, took over the Patriots offense and helped guide them to an 11-5 record. Actually, there were a few games where he was nothing short of brilliant, throwing for 400 yards in back-to-back games in mid-November, and ending his season with eight touchdown passes to only one interception over the final four weeks of the season.

The beauty of it for Cassel is the fact he is now in the drivers seat as an unrestricted free agent. He’s positioned himself to get, I’m guessing, a rather large offer from some desperate team in dire need of a quarterback — like Detroit, for example — or get slapped with the franchise tag in New England.

Either way, he’s going to be financially set for life.

Here’s where this is all going: Mike Lombardi, former NFL general manager and current contributor to National Football Post, is convinced the Patriots will make Cassel their franchise player this offseason.Continue Reading