Matt Cassel honored for unexpected NFL success

As most football fans know by now, New England Patriots quarterback Matt Cassel sat on the bench at USC behind two Heisman Trophy winners -- Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.

This past year, Palmer was hurt early and missed most of the Cincinnati Bengals' season. He still collected $7,750,000.

Leinart was a backup to Kurt Warner and was barely called upon, even for mop-up duty with the Arizona Cardinals. He's still dreaming of a starring role, but this Sunday he may get a Super Bowl ring to cap off a $6,175,280 season.

And Cassel? He stepped in when Tom Brady shredded his knee in Week 1, then led the Pats to 11 wins and narrowly missed the postseason. He piled up 3,693 yard and 21 touchdowns with his arm, adding 270 yards and two scores with his feet (behind a struggling offensive line, no less). Cassel even wrote himself into the team's record books with successive 400-yard games against the Jets and Dolphins.

All that for just $525,640? Talk about a bargain.

As a result of his unexpected performance, Cassel was honored with the 2008 Vizio Top Value Performer award. In only its second year, the concept is to recognize "pro football players with smaller contracts that emerge to perform above and beyond expectations and bring the highest value to their teams." Cassel won a fan poll with 42% of the vote, beating out Houston's Steve Slaton, Denver's Brandon Marshall, Tampa's Antonio Bryant and Green Bay's Nick Collins.

Consider this a one-time honor for Cassel. New England plans to slap a franchise tag on him, locking him in as Brady's backup for a whopping $14 million per year. That's the equivalent of Leinart's guarantee for six years, though the total value for the Arizona backup could have reached $51 million with incentives.

Brady, in case you were wondering, collected $8,001,320 this year while being hand-fed by a supermodel.

-- Adam Rose
Photo from Vizio TVP website. Salaries from the USA Today Salaries Database. H/T to TrojanWire.