The Patriots traded QB Matt Cassel and veteran LB Mike Vrabel yesterday to the Kansas City Chiefs for … the 34th overall pick in the 2009 draft. That’s it. A lot of fans think the Patriots got robbed, and in a way they did. But this actually was a pretty decent trade which worked out well for everyone involved on the New England side of the fence.

Consider the following:

1. If the Patriots hadn’t franchised Cassel they would have gotten nothing for him. He would have walked away as a free agent.
2. Had they not franchised Cassel, his next team would have gotten him for a lot less than the franchise salary. So in the numbers game, this keeps his new team from getting their starting QB for cheap.
3. Given that Cassel was a backup most of his career, and a late round pick when selected, the Patriots converted that into a high pick in the upcoming draft, plus scraped out an 11-5 season with him when everyone expected the Patriots to fall when Brady fell.
4. Cassel gets his pay day, just not at Robert Kraft’s expense. It is unlikely he would get the same starting pay were he

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