The Patriots could have gotten more for Matt Cassel than they wound up with, perhaps even first- and third-round picks instead of the single second-rounder they received from Kansas City.

Patriots fans have a right to be agitated by that.

I’m just not sure where they should direct their agitation.

I was told by an NFL source yesterday the reports of Tampa Bay jumping into the Cassel fray late in the process on Saturday were accurate. A first- and a third-rounder were offered as part of an apparent three-team swap that would have seen Cassel go to Denver, Jay Cutler go to Tampa and the picks go to New England. But, also per this source, Tampa was too late. The paperwork was in and the Pats weren’t going to back out with Scott Pioli and the Chiefs. The Pats would have taken the first and third if Tampa was quicker, but the KC deal was done.

Which leads to the $14.6 million question:

What were the Buccaneers waiting for?

And what is Denver doing?

Both the Buccaneers and Broncos are being led by young, first-year head coaches and new management teams. In Tampa, it’s coach Raheem Morris and GM Mark Dominik. In Denver, it’s Bill Belichick-disciple Josh McDaniels and rookie GM Brian Xanders. Perhaps that group of newcomers wasn’t aware that the early bird gets the worm.

For Tampa to get involved only after the NFL Network came on the air Saturday morning and reported Cassel was a done deal in Kansas City is particularly hard to fathom. What were Morris and Dominik doing all February? Where were they on Friday? Were they somehow surprised that Kansas City was looking to acquire the guy that Pioli drafted? Duh. Making matters worse, according to my source, the Pats and Bucs talked about Cassel multiple times this offseason, including late last week, and the Bucs showed little interest. But on Saturday Tampa showed up with first- and third-round picks. What’s up with that?

Meanwhile, it sure looks like McDaniels botched his first big personnel move in Denver. Talk about not learning from the master. He obviously lost control of the information flow, and now he’s stuck with a shaken, alienated young quarterback who he apparently didn’t even want in the first place. McDaniels may now be forced to trade Cutler out of necessity, but without the benefit of having Cassel available as a fallback. Oops.

How could Denver and Tampa (and, if the reports are accurate, Detroit as well) be so late to the game on something so important? The execution of trades was not permitted until midnight on Thursday, but nothing precluded teams from talking and negotiating well in advance of that. There is no such thing as tampering when it comes to trade talks. You can conduct them at any time. McDaniels got the Denver job Jan. 11. He had over six weeks to get his ducks in a row and figure out what he wanted to do. Same with Morris, who was hired by Tampa Jan. 17.

Pioli and Belichick were clearly talking prior to Thursday night. Why Morris and McDaniels waited for Saturday is anyone’s guess.

Do the Patriots bare any responsibility for not waiting out the market? Maybe. After all, had they let the process play out in a more deliberate fashion, perhaps Tampa would have gotten their offer on the table in time and the Pats would be looking at a better haul.

But I have hard time really faulting the Pats on this. They were acting quickly and decisively; it’s not their fault that the other teams couldn’t figure out what they were doing. What was Belichick supposed to do, sit around and say, “Well, we have this deal with Kansas City, and we like it. But we’re going to turn it down because we think there are some slow, disorganized teams out there who will come in and beat it once they get their act together?”

Besides, the Pats are more than happy with the 34th selection. They now have four picks in the top 60 (Nos. 23, 34, 47 and 58). They’ve gotten $14.6 million in cap space back at the beginning of free agency. They can move on with their lives.

There’s only one thing I don’t get about the deal — and that’s  Mike Vrabel’s inclusion in it.

I’ve been told Vrabel’s 2009 cap number ($4.3 million) was being looked at hard by the Pats, and if he wasn’t traded he probably would have been asked to renegotiate or be released. The feeling is that the Pats sent him to Kansas City so he could collect the money left on his contract, a $2.2 million salary in 2009 and a $1 million roster bonus. The Pats were doing him a favor, in other words.

Maybe. It still doesn’t feel right.

I mean, if we had told you heading into the weekend that the Cassel trade would involve a second-round pick and a starting linebacker, wouldn’t you assume that would have meant a starting linebacker going to the Patriots?

When Matt Schaub went from Atlanta to the Texans two years ago (for two seconds and a move-up of two spots in the first round, by the way), did the Falcons also send along a starting linebacker who owned his team’s highest single season sack total in two decades?

When A.J. Feeley went from Philadelphia to the Dolphins for a second in 2004, did the Eagles throw in a three-time Super Bowl winner and four-year team captain?

When Daunte Culpepper went to Miami for a second-rounder in 2006, did the Vikings include one of the most important players in their locker room in the deal?

No, no and no.

So why, then, is Vrabel in Kansas City?

He’s only been the perfect Patriot. He’s only been a poster boy for everything Belichick says he wants his players to represent. He played hard, played hurt and played wherever Belichick asked him for eight years. He was the smartest player Belichick ever worked with (the coach’s words) and, more than anything, he was productive.

Yes, Vrabel is coming off a down year, with four sacks, one forced fumble, one interception and just nine hits on the QB. He’s also 33 and last year battled back/shoulder problems that affected him more than people realize.

Certainly, the Pats think he’s toast. But if that’s the case, what’s Tedy Bruschi? Charcoal?

It’s hard to make the case Vrabel would have represented bad value, especially given how many positions he can play (outside linebacker, inside linebacker, tight end, special teams) and his role in the locker room. Vrabel’s scheduled hit in 2009 represented just three percent of the $127 million salary cap.

Vrabel in a warmup suit standing on the sidelines is worth three percent of the cap.

Vrabel’s brain in a jar equals three percent of the cap.

And I don’t think he’s done making plays, by the way. It was just two seasons ago when he had the most sacks of any Patriots player in the Belichick era (12.5). And down the stretch in 2008, once he got past a nine-game sackless streak, he showed some his old burst, with a pair of sacks, four QB hits and an interception over the last six games.

For one more season, I felt Vrabel was worth retaining. He wasn’t Lawyer Milloy, Ty Law or Willie McGinest, guys who had big cap numbers coming up or huge roster bonuses due. He was affordable.

The last thing anyone wants to believe is that Vrabel’s role as a player rep and his strong comments in November about Patriot Place and the looming battle over the Collective Bargaining Agreement played a part in this. (“They raise the ticket prices 25 percent, but the salaries don’t go up 25 percent,” Vrabel told the Boston Herald. “That needs to be talked about.”) The Pats didn’t win three Super Bowls and become a model for the league by making decisions for the wrong reasons — and trading Vrabel because of that article would have been one of the worst reasons of all. I refuse to believe it was a factor.

It was just business.

Now if only Tampa and Denver could have done theirs a bit quicker....

Felger can be seen nightly on Comcast Sportsnet and reached at mfelger@weei.com.