Well, it's official: the Pats and Chiefs have agreed to a deal that will have both Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel playing in Kansas City next year. The compensation? It appears to be the Chiefs' second round pick, the 34th overall selection.

It's hard for me to decide where I'll end up falling on this one right now. Seeing that the Pats "only" got a second rounder (albeit a very high second rounder) as opposed to a first or multiple picks doesn't look as attractive as most fans would like, but considering the "value" of the pick, it could end up being more worthwhile for the Pats than if they had gotten KC's 3rd overall pick. On the other hand, we Pats fans were hoping the team would be able to get much more for Cassel alone; throw Vrabel into the deal, and a single second round pick almost seems like a slap in the face to some.

The Pats were probably happy to move Cassel's salary ASAP as it frees them up to use that money in different moves via free agency now, but it's very hard to believe they couldn't have eventually done better as time went on. Regardless of experience, Cassel was easily the best available quarterback (whether through trade or free agency) that wasn't yet spoken for (i.e. guys like Kurt Warner and Kerry Collins). Belichick and Caserio will probably turn that 34th pick into a solid, everyday contributor, but I'm not convinced teams like the Lions and Bucs wouldn't have gone a step further to pry Cassel from the Pats.

And please, everyone defending this move on blind faith because it's Belichick and the Patriots spare me all the "Vrabel's on the back nine" and "Cassel still hasn't proven he can succeed over the course of several seasons" crap. The Chiefs were throwing around first round picks and upper-echelon talent in trades last year like Christian Bale tosses out f-bombs, and had Carl Peterson still been running the show, he would have offered their first and third round selections for Cassel alone. Yes, for the "value" of the 34th overall compared to the 3rd overall considering the guaranteed money you have to throw at top ten picks, the pick they got could and should prove more "valuable" than the one they didn't get. And as Mike Reiss points out, what all these moves come down to right now is the conditions of the market and what others are willing to give up in return. Still, I can't help feeling a little disappointed. I guess the good news in all this is that the Pats are confident Brady will return to full health. So at least there's that.