Matt Cassel Inks Long-Term Deal With Kansas City Chiefs

Matt Cassel was already a very rich man when he signed a one-year franchise tender with the Kansas City Chiefs that paid him nearly $15 million for the upcoming season. And now, it appears as if he will be really, really rich as word on the street is that he's signed a multi-year deal with the Chiefs.

This shouldn't be that surprising -- in all likelihood, Scott Pioli read my article this morning proclaiming Cassel an "underrated quarterback." Or, alternately, Pioli has followed Cassel's entire career and recognizes his Tom Brady-esque "benchwarmer turned franchise quarterback" potential. Hard to tell really. (Update after the jump.)

Details of the deal, according to the KC Star's blog, have yet to be disclosed, but given what Cassel is prepared to make this year and his potential on the open market if he can even remotely replicate his 2008, one would have to imagine it gives him some pretty nice financial security for the next few years.

Based on what Tom Brady makes (think smaller base salary with a large signing bonus and other incentives), it's not unreasonable to think Cassel will pull something relatively close, although smaller in scale, because the amount of time he's actually performed at a high level is much smaller than Brady, obviously.

But again, Pioli would like as much salary cap flexibility as possible, and by working out a large signing bonus with a quarterback he believes in, he can lock up the most important position on the field without damaging his team's ability to grow in the long term.

Update: The Chiefs made the announcement official, with obviously excited quotes from chairman Clark Hunt and Pioli:

General Manager Scott Pioli echoed Hunt's sentiments. "We are happy to announce that the Chiefs and Matt have entered into a multi-year commitment," said Pioli. "Since Matt arrived in Kansas City, he has embraced the team and the community. His work ethic, his ability and competitive presence is what we expect from our players."

Florio threw out that it's actually an extension and that it might be worth somewhere in the range of $60 million/six years, which would make a ton of sense for the Chiefs; using Cassel's already over-inflated salary for this year as part of a long-term deal makes way too much sense not to try and pull off.