This trade definitely improves the Patriots.
We gain a late first round caliber player (its a deep draft) for four years at a reasonable cost.
We lose one year of service from a quality backup QB, who hopefully would never have seen the field.
We lose one year of service from an aging LB whose on-field value wasn't worth his cap number, and whose off-field value is better appreciated elsewhere.
We get rid of $17M+ in cap space for 2009 (going into a potentially uncapped year in which many key starters will be free agents, so we need that money if we want to keep them from testing the waters).
I am breathing a sigh of relief that we didn't get stuck carrying Cassel.
Could we have gotten more from elsewhere? Maybe. I expect to see media reports to that effect. To the extent that executives in Detroit or TB had plans to sit back and wait for the Cassel market to soften, it is safe that they won't repeat that mistake in the future. But it is uncertain that such a deal would have been consummated. If it was, it would have come too late for the Patriots to consider being active in free agency.
I also think it is possible for BB and Pioli to negotiate deals that include future good will for one side or the other. Pioli couldn't afford to be seen as giving BB a good deal. BB has no such problem on his end. BB also starts off owing Pioli some good will for not taking the deal with Seattle.
People who wanted the #3 for Cassel and Vrabel are being greedy. Yes, we occasionally get insane deals like the Moss deal. But that is a very unusual thing; something to be celebrated, not expected.
As far as the Matt Schaub deal goes: that was an insane deal favoring Atlanta, and everybody knew it at the time the deal occurred. It is a poor benchmark to use in judging the Cassel deal.
