The New England Patriots' Off-Season Quarterback Situation

Season's over.

Time to pack the bags, empty the lockers, get to the golf course and relax. For the New England Patriots, that is.

For the first time in forever—okay six years—the Patriots do not have a ticket punched for January playoffs.

Some say it is a shame, some say they get what they deserve, but in the end all that matters is one thing: they aren't going to win the Super Bowl this year.

Although most fans are upset, I myself am optimistic. Last time Belichick failed to reach the playoffs was 2002. Does anyone remember what happened the next two years?

So with the offseason a month longer than most fans had hoped, the Patriots can get started on working towards 2009. Already, there is talk of massive changes in the Patriots.

Will Josh McDaniels leave? How about Pioli? Franchise Cassel? How about a Romeo Crennel return? Bruschi retiring? Will they draft a corner or another linebacker?!?!

The questions us fans have are endless. To help myself maybe answer a couple of them, I am going to go position-by-position and see where the Patriots are at.

I am going to ignore contract situations, and am assuming everyone on the team this year will either return or be cut/traded, just to make it simple. For instance, instead of thinking maybe Lamont Jordan will leave, I assume he will stay.

The first position will be quarterbacks, and throughout the NFL, I guarantee the Patriots have the most interesting quarterback situation.

The first option is Tom Brady—arguably the best quarterback in the league (I said arguably, I don't mean let's argue over it. I personally feel JaMarcus Russell is the best.) Second is Matt Cassel, an unknown who almost every fan wanted burned and cut after his horrid preseason.

Tom Brady is under contract, he is a fan-favorite, and helped lead the team to an 18-1 record in 2007.

Bad news, he is recovering from knee surgery and no fan or media outlet truly knows if he will be ready for 2009.

Matt Cassel is scheduled to be a free agent. He became a fan-favorite after his games against the Colts, Jets, and especially the Raiders. He helped lead an injury-depleted Patriots to 11-5 when critics said .500 was going to be tough.

As this unfolds, we will truly see how much information the Patriots withhold from the fans.

ESPN reported that someone else reported that someone said that Brady was way behind schedule. The Boston Globe said that Brady was, at most, a couple of weeks behind, but should still be available. If Matt Cassel is franchised and traded very soon, we know the Patriots think Brady will be under center for 2009. If they franchise and hold onto Cassel, we know the Patriots are worried that Brady might not be ready.

One thing we know is that in Cassel we have a solid quarterback. Before we give him the hall of fame jacket, though, let's look at some of his flaws:

He Has Not Been Able To Throw the Deep Ball Consistently This Season

Towards the end of the year, this became less and less of a problem. The running game was picking up, Cassel's overall comfort was picking up, and the offense was clicking. The fact that there were not one-and-done touchdown drives was not a problem, as Cassel was able to lead the Patriots into a time control, possession-based offense, and it worked.

He Holds Onto the Ball Way Too Long

True, in the beginning of the year he held onto the ball too long, and as a result was sacked an inordinate amount of times. But if you look at recent games, you could see marked improvement in that regard. In the last four games he was sacked only seven times. Sure, quality of opponents wasn't that good, but is St. Louis really that much better than Oakland? With time and practice, his speed and comfort level will only increase in the offense and the sack numbers will drop.

No Clutch Gene

Second game against the Jets. Colts game (they lost, but he drove them down and was let down by teammates). Raiders game. Seahawks.

Sure, against Pittsburgh he looked silly. But wouldn't Pitt's defense make most inexperienced quarterbacks look silly? No, it is not an excuse, but it is something to think about. Maybe a second time around he would have been able to control the game a bit better. Just look at the first half of that game—dropped passes on great throws.

So where do the Patriots go from here?

Obviously this will bring up memories of 2001 and Drew Bledsoe and how the Patriots famously traded away the star quarterback—the franchise's face—in order to keep the young gun that just won the Super Bowl.

This is not 2001, but are the Patriots that different?

No matter what happens, people will argue with Belichick's decision. Unfortunately, one can never know until a couple years down the line. Truly, one can never, ever know.

Hopefully, whatever decision Belichick makes, it is the right one for the Patriots. Whether he keeps Cassel and trades Brady (don't try and pretend it isn't a possibility,) or trades Cassel, each option, if healthy, is better than Trent Edwards, Brett Favre, or Alex Smith.

The Patriots are one of the luckiest teams in the league in that they have two quality starting quarterbacks who can run the system they have set up, and run it well.

Oh, yeah, Matt Guttierez and Kevin O'Connell will most likely be backups next year for the Pats. Just too bad they don't have JaMarcus Russell.