“I Get a Phone Call From Coach Belichick”: Matt Cassel Recalls 2009 Trade to Chiefs With Mike Vrabel

Matt Cassel arguably had the unluckiest stint in New England. After serving as a backup quarterback for the first three years, his official rookie year came in 2008 after starting QB Tom Brady was hit in the knee during the season opener against the KC Chiefs, sidelining him for the rest of the season.

Cassel played exceptionally well in Brady’s stead, pulling off an 11-5 record, yet the team couldn’t make the playoffs. It was quite rare. Cassel did, however, play well enough to improve his draft stock and get a starting job elsewhere. But little did he know it would be the Chiefs—the same team that ‘accidentally’ gave him a chance to play—and his buddy Mike Vrabel would be coming with him.

Before all this came into play, Cassel was franchise-tagged by the Patriots, who clearly had doubts about whether Brady would be back at full capacity in 2009. However, that “uneasiness” about Brady’s availability subsided, and, as expected, the team decided to cut ties with Cassel and trade him.

“There was some uneasiness about Brady and the recovery going on with his knee. So, all of a sudden, they franchise me. I was like, ‘What does that mean, exactly?'” Cassel recounted on the latest episode of The Insiders.

The somber trade news, which was probably something Cassel didn’t want to hear, was delivered by his head coach, Bill Belichick. He called the quarterback, talked to him about the situation, and thanked him for his service the previous year. But not once did the coach mention Vrabel’s trade.

“I’m sitting in the parking lot of a grocery store in California; I get a phone call from coach Belichick. I’m wondering what this is about. Well, I got traded to Kansas City. At first, he didn’t say anything about Vrabel,” he added.

A few minutes later, Vrabel called Cassel to share the unexpected news that he’d be joining him, which thrilled Cassel.

“Vrabel’s my boy, so I was like, ‘Yesss, this is gonna be great. I don’t know if he was as excited as I was about the trade, but we ended up being neighbors in Kansas City. We lived literally two houses down from each other.”

Cut to the present, and Vrabel is now plying his trade as a coach. He was even interviewed for the head coach position at his former team recently — something Cassel is hopeful about.

Cassel thinks Mike Vrabel is the “perfect fit” for the Patriots

Vrabel could very likely become the head coach of the New England Patriots this year. He knows the franchise well and is also in the Patriots Hall of Fame. But Cassel asserted on the show that Vrabel is more than that. He is not merely a coach from the Belichick tree, but also from several other great coaches from other organizations.

“It would be the perfect fit. You think about Vrabel as a player and what he was to that organization… A lot of people, though, associate him with the Belichick tree, but really, he has branched off. He has been under Urben Meyer at Ohio State, he was under Bill O’Brien at Houston, and when you talk to other players that have been around him, he’s just an exceptional coach, a player’s coach. He’s been there. He understands what it takes to win.”

Vrabel’s stint in Tennessee didn’t quite end well, which Cassel finds “unfortunate.” However, he still wholeheartedly believes that Vrabel would do well as a coach in New England with Drake Maye at quarterback. He also believes that the Kraft family would love to have him back.