At the league meetings two weeks ago, I ran into Cassel's agent, David Dunn, who was trying to figure out why in the world Kansas City GM Scott Pioli wasn't eager to do a long-term deal for Cassel. Simple, I theorized; Cassel's only done it once, and if he's only marginally successful this year with Kansas City, he's not going to be a very good bargain with the $30-million or so in guaranteed money the Chiefs would have to pay him to get a deal done. And if he's great this year, the Chiefs still have the right to make him a restricted free-agent next year, whereby they'd have to pay him 110 percent of his salary this year ($16.115 million) ... which would mean they'd be committing $30.77 million to him over the next two seasons. If you're not positive about whether a quarterback's going to be a franchise guy, it's probably smarter to make him prove it again, even if that could end up costing you a little more in the long run.