As noted by Pro Football Talk, Thursday was the first day NFL teams could designate franchise or transition players. These designations are not taken lightly, as they carry huge salary cap implications and can often rub players the wrong way, because I guess they don't like those guaranteed $10 million-plus salaries.
It's likely that the most interesting of these decisions belonged to the New England Patriots. With Tom Brady on the shelf for virtually the entire 2008 season, Matt Cassel came in and played well. He was set to be an unrestricted free agent (note use of "was").
The Patriots didn't waste any time slapping the franchise tag on Cassel.
"Matt has been a pleasure to coach his entire career and last season in particular, when his years of hard work and commitment resulted in a most impressive performance," said Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick. "We look forward to working with Matt again in 2009."
