The Patriots have until Feb. 19 to determine whether to place the franchise tag on Matt Cassel, whose contract expires after the season. That gives them three months from Monday to decide his future with the club. Because the NFLPA won't allow teams to franchise players if they have no intention of keeping them, according to Peter King, the Patriots won't be able to franchise Cassel if they intend to trade him. King expects Cassel to be a free-agent and end up making $9 million a year with Minnesota, Detroit, San Francisco, St. Louis or whatever Josh McDaniels coaches in 2009, should the offensive coordinator get a head-coaching job.