Bedard: Why didn't Nick Caserio take the leap into free agency?

Ever since the Texans sought out Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio last summer, it was assumed Caserio would bide his time, fulfill his contract through the draft and then become a free agent.

Maybe he might have landed in Houston with Bill O'Brien and old friend Jack Easterby. Maybe he could have been the right-hand man to Matt Rhule in Carolina, but Caserio has no connection to him.

But outside of that, there aren't many openings that are known at this time. The Redskins are still looking for a general manager, but Ron Rivera is going to have a huge say in that and it's likely he picks someone he's familiar with from Carolina or even his time with the Chargers. Cleveland is all set with their bots, The Joneses rule Dallas, and Dave Gettleman is secure with the Giants for now.

According to sources close to the situation, that is the main reason why Caserio is close to signing back on at One Patriots Place, as the Boston Globe first reported.

This wasn't about Bill Belichick needing his personnel guy during this uncertain time, in which the personnel department needs to start hitting for extra bases. In Monti Ossenfort, Brian Smith and Dave Ziegler, the Patriots have a much better pipeline to fill out their personnel department than their coaching staff.

And that's not to say that Caserio isn't good at his job — he is, and he should get a chance to run his own personnel department. He's disciplined, organized, very smart and has a good eye for talent. But everything the Patriots do in personnel — good and bad — is through Belichick.

Caserio didn't follow the lead of many on the coaching staff who, in order to find more pay and perhaps a quicker rise in an organization, declined contract extensions in recent years to be free to take any job they wanted to. And that's because the coaches have a timing advantage. They're done at the end of the season — personnel people are tied to the team through the draft and most teams have chosen their leaders heading into the offseason by that point.

If Caserio turned down this contract extension, he was running the risk that the Patriots would move on and he'd be out of work. He'd, at the least, find a role to consult for a team like the Texans until the next hiring cycle. And who knows how that would go for him?

In the end, Caserio didn't like the options out there, and he wasn't sure any situation would be better than the one he currently has in New England.

It will be interesting to find out if Caserio finally received the title of general manager, or if he again allowed the clause in his contract that forbid other teams from even interviewing him. If he has the GM title, he's likely to be here for a long time, because the only way he could leave, according to NFL rules, would be for a GM position where he makes all the personnel decisions. And that can be tough to prove.

If he doesn't have the GM title, that could very well mean Caserio gave that up in exchange for being available to teams next year when the jobs are out there.

Is this good news for the Patriots? Sure, but Caserio was still going to work for the Patriots through free agency and the draft in any event, and they have plenty of talented people ready to move up the ladder in personnel.

And that might need to happen less than a year from now, if Caserio gets the itch again, especially when Josh McDaniels might be setting up his own shop after this year's questionable interview cycle.