Agree, but I think they need to move quickly. Paying one guy big money isn't their style, so I could still see this being a franchise tag/holdout situation. I don't see us trading for him, but I could see him hitting the market next year much like a Julius Peppers situation. If that happens, I think our head office would be willing to pay top dollar for that position.
Then again, maybe the Pats franchise him and trade him for less than we would expect. At that point, whichever team trades for him would still have to pay pretty big on top of giving up trade value. Hard to see teams trading draft picks in a year where so much Junior talent is being made available.
Belichick let Cassel go for less than I thought he would. But then again he needed to move Cassel quick, he won't need to move Wilfork as quick.
Both Parcells and Belichick are not opposed to trading with in the division. Yeah you help the other team, but you also hurt them by taking away something. End of the day the best thing to do is to do what helps build your own team and not worry about hurting a division rival.