I do think I had you mixed up with someone else...
Actually, it was more the Pats were against the wall due to Brady’s percieved health. Word around here was that the surgery didn’t go exactly as planned, there were complications. Many observers thought(and I agreed seeing some of the pictures)that something wasn’t quite right, that he had lost weight and looked gaunt. I do believe there were legitimate concerns at the top about Brady’s readiness for the next season, and that concern coincided with Cassel’s entry into the market. Being a business, they had to plan for “what if”, because they didn’t want to start the season with the guy who was behind Cassel.
That’s was the talk, and again given his performance in KC seems it was right.
Just because Brady was still iffy didn’t mean they had to franchise tag Cassel. They could have negotiated something else, 2 months later he signed a 6 year 62 million deal with KC, so clearly the Pats didn’t have to tag him at 14 mil to keep him for a year, or 4 mil a year more than the deal he eventually signed. Of course if you take into consideration the fact that Pioli was already shopping around for somewhere else to go, left the Pats 2 weeks after applying the tag, and is the guy that negotiated the trade AND Cassel’s non-tag deal with KC the whole thing makes a lot more sense. Cassel was never going to get paid 14 mil, the tag was applied just to make sure suitors would have to trade for him, and to keep the suitor list low. Pioli used the tag to shelve Cassel for his next gig. Which is why I say the league should have disallowed the trade (over and above the fact that it’s generally considered dirty pool to trade a tagged player anyway, the idea being that you tagged him because the franchise needs him). But the NFL never voids trades, they can they just don’t.