page_title: 2009 Kansas City Chiefs season
section_title: Cassel/Vrabel trade
hierarchical_section_title: 2009 Kansas City Chiefs season / Offseason / Roster changes and trade demands / Additions / Cassel/Vrabel trade
caption_attribution_description: Matt Cassell throws a pass. Patriots v. Bills, 11/9/08
context_page_description: The 2009 Kansas City Chiefs season was the franchise's 50th season, and first with head coach Todd Haley at the helm. It was also the first season with Scott Pioli as the team's general manager. The Chiefs attempted to improve on their 2–14 record from 2008 with the third overall selection in the 2009 NFL Draft. In 2009, the Chiefs also honored the induction of Derrick Thomas, the team's former linebacker from 1989 to 1999, into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Thomas' jersey number 58 was officially retired by the franchise after having been unissued since Thomas' death in 2000.
  The fate of head coach Herman Edwards and his staff remained uncertain after the end of the 2008 season in which the Chiefs finished with a franchise-worst 2–14 record. The team was 6–26 in the past two years under Edwards, who had one year left on a four-year, $12 million contract and was lobbying to be allowed another year to get his rebuilding movement off the ground. Team owner Clark Hunt voiced his support of Edwards, but he had also said the new general manager Scott Pioli would have "significant input" into the decision on whether to retain him.
context_section_description: On the first day of free agency (February 27), the Chiefs acquired LB Mike Vrabel from the Patriots for an undisclosed draft pick. The Boston Globe speculated that it would be part of a bigger trade involving QB Matt Cassel. The next day, the Chiefs confirmed the acquisition of both Vrabel and Cassel from New England in exchange for their second round draft selection in the 2009 NFL Draft (#34 overall).
  Reactions to the trade were mixed and it was called "monumentally lopsided" with the Chiefs "clearly (getting) the better end of the deal." Don Banks of Sports Illustrated called the Chiefs the "big winners" of the first weekend of NFL free agency and the Patriots' compensation "laughably low", but the best they could get in return. The trade was done mainly because the Patriots could not keep two quarterbacks on their roster that took up $29.2 million of salary cap space, so it was not a matter of if the Patriots would trade Cassel, but when. The Patriots also had Tom Brady under contract, who was recovering from a knee-injury suffered in a 2008 game against the Chiefs.
  On July 15 the Chiefs signed Cassel to six-year contract extension worth a total of $63 million.
caption: Matt Cassel was acquired in February.
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