Matt Cassel Traded to Bills

UPDATE 12:00 PM: According to Alex Marvez, the Bills gave up a 2015 5th round pick and a 2016 7th rounder in exchange for Cassel and the Vikings' 2015 sixth round pick.

. @buffalobills swap their 1st 2015 5th-round pick for @Vikings 2015 6th-rounder and give Min a 2016 7th-rounder for Matt Cassel @NFLonFOX

— Alex Marvez (@alexmarvez) March 4, 2015

And you thought Rex & company were just going to sit and enjoy that LeSean McCoy/Kiko Alonso trade for a few days.

The Buffalo Bills kept their surprising week of moves going on Wednesday by acquiring Vikings backup quarterback Matt Cassel in a trade. The finer points of the trade haven't been released as of this posting, but the basic structure of the trade according to multiple media reports is that Buffalo will get Cassel and a draft pick from the Vikings in exchange for multiple picks (most likely two) from the Bills.

Obviously the round of said draft picks will impact opinion on who got the better part of this trade. It's highly unlikely that picks in the top three rounds were exchanged on either side, but netting a pick in the 4th or 5th round along with another late rounder in exchange for Cassel would probably be considered a win by most Vikings fans. The caliber of pick that the Vikings dealt to Buffalo should tell quite a bit toward how each team valued the QB.

On Sunday Chris reported on how the Vikings were "unsure" of bringing Cassel back in 2015. He was due just over $4 million in salary this season along with a $500,000 roster bonus and $100,000 workout bonus, which is a pretty steep price to pay for a backup. However, the Vikings are paying Teddy Bridgewater a relative pittance on his rookie deal and this year's free agent quarterback market is slim pickings; those facts made a strong case for the Vikings retaining Cassel.

For now, the only quarterbacks on the official Minnesota roster are Bridgewater, Christian Ponder, and Pat Devlin. One would assume that the team will address the backup situation in free agency or in the middle to late rounds of the draft. Because I don't think anyone wants to see a repeat of last year's Lambeau game in 2015.

The trade can't become official until 3:00 PM next Tuesday when the new league year officially begins. When we know more details about the draft picks exchanged in the trade, we'll be sure to pass them along to you. In the meantime, best of luck to Cassel in his new endeavor. He should get a good shot at the starting job in Buffalo, something he wasn't going to get in Minnesota barring injury.