That line, lifted and butchered from the movie Wall Street, explains the current situation with Matt Cassel. Franchising is good for Cassel. For four preseason and sixteen regular season games, Matt will make $732,500...PER GAME!! You read that right. He'll make more in one game than his 2008 salary of $520,000. Half a million is nothing to sneeze at, but $14.65 million is quite the payday.
Franchising is also good for the Patriots. Sure, the negative is tying up 20% of New England's salary cap in two players (Brady and Cassel), but the Patriots need this insurance policy. It's not the best choice, but no matter what any doctor tells you, until Brady gets on the field and can prove that his knee has recovered enough, all bets are off; having the now proven Cassel as an option is a dang good thing.
But wait, there's more. This is again good for the Patriots because they have the right to trade Cassel during the year. This is good for two reasons: a) NE can negotiate a sweet deal with the receiving team (defensive draft picks, anyone?) and b) it would indicate Tom Brady is ready to take the helm. Chaching...
According to Mike Lombardi, there eight obvious teams who could make a move for Cassel: Lions, Vikings, Buccaneers, 49ers, Rams, Bears, Jets, and Chiefs. Like everything Lombardi puts out, his reasoning is sound and full of as much (insider) information as he can muster. My bet is on the Vikings. With plenty of cap space and draft picks that could help shore up the defense, things could work out for NE. We're already picking 23rd, so grabbing the Vikings' 22nd pick wouldn't be a bad thing.
An insurance policy in case Brady isn't ready, a payday for Matt, and a little something something from another team - all this sounds good to me.