Peter King article on Bledsoe

[Coach Tuesday]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writ...mqb1/index.html

 

A very significant story for the future of Drew Bledsoe in Buffalo happened, of all times, during the coin flip before the season's last game against Pittsburgh.

 

Big game for Buffalo. Very big. A win over Pittsburgh, which would be resting some of its stalwarts, and the Bills were still in the playoff hunt. Winds were whipping up pretty strong that day -- 17 mph. Before he walked out to midfield for the flip, Bledsoe was advised by coaches to choose to defend the east goal if Pittsburgh won the toss and elected to receive. That way, the Steelers wouldn't be wind-aided when they took the ball. Pittsburgh won the toss. Pittsburgh elected to receive. Bledsoe said Buffalo would defend the west goal.

 

West? We told him east! The Bills sideline was stunned. What is God's name was Bledsoe doing? Bledsoe explained that when he got to midfield, it seemed to him the wind was whipping around differently than the way the coaches thought, and so he picked the opposite goal to defend. There was some anger toward Bledsoe on the sideline, and maybe it was just coincidental, but the Steelers scored 23 of their 29 points going from west to east that day -- and Bledsoe's decision backfired.

 

Sometimes, coaches don't want players to think. They want players to do what they're told. Bledsoe defied the Buffalo staff that day, a sort of subtle defiance that began to irritate the Bills coaches the same way it had irritated Bill Belichick's staff four years earlier. That simple act didn't get Bledsoe unemployed. Three very big Bills losses this year (at New England, at Baltimore, and that Pittsburgh game), in which he threw zero touchdowns and eight interceptions, helped Mike Mularkey decide he'd be as well off playing J.P. Losman, a kid he knew had some mobility and, more important, would follow instructions.

 

Courageous move by Mularkey? I guess so. But Bledsoe has been average for a long time now. He wasn't worth a first-round pick when the Bills traded for him three years ago. He last led a team to the playoffs seven years ago. In his last five full seasons played, his teams have finished last, last, last, third and third in the AFC East. And now, in the wake of the Bills' whacking of the quarterback they were sure would lead them to the promised land, it is official: The single smartest personnel decision in the five-year Belichick/Pioli Era of New England Patriots history was trading Drew Bledsoe on draft day three years ago.

 

It seems almost cruel to say, because Bledsoe was a popular player during some heady football times in Boston -- on his way to being a Havlicek-, Orr- or Yastrzemski-type in Hub sports lore. But for several reasons, getting rid of him for Tom Brady three months after New England's first Super Bowl win propelled the Patriots to a run of greatness -- the Pats are 32-2 over their last 34 games, including two Super Bowl wins -- that is still alive today.

 

In fact, the best decision owner Bob Kraft may ever made in his glittery ownership history with the Patriots is one he almost certainly didn't want to make. Thirteen months after signing Bledsoe to what turned out to be an absolutely foolish contract (10 years, $103 million), Kraft allowed Belichick to trade him to Buffalo.

 

We could debate all day whether the Patriots would have won two Super Bowls since that day had Belichick decided to play Bledsoe over Brady in 2002 and beyond. But I'd argue till I'm blue that keeping Bledsoe and Brady, or picking Bledsoe and trading Brady, would have held the franchise down. I'll give you three reasons why New England unequivocally would not have had near the success it's had unless they foisted Bledsoe on the Bills:

 

1. Bledsoe was a privileged character. Brady is an employee. I'm exaggerating, but let's face it, when you make a guy the highest-paid player in history, and you build so much of your promotion around a great player rather than a great team, it's hard to have a team of 53 Musketeers. You know, one for all and all for one. There's going to be some grumbling that one guy is above the team, and there's going to be the salary-cap reality that one guy is simply making too much money. In allowing Bledsoe to be dealt, Kraft was implicitly handing the reins of his team to Belichick. Such delegation had to be hard for Kraft, who really liked the likeable Bledsoe. But he had to do it. Brady is a cog in the wheel. He's remained that way even after his enormous success. Some players around the league would laugh at Brady for not making a big stink that he's nowhere near the highest-paid quarterback in football. He's due to make a salary of $5.5 million in 2005, with a salary-cap number of $8.37 million. I asked him last week about his seeming reticence to tub-thump, even though no other marquee player has what he has right now -- three Super Bowl rings by age 27. "To be the highest-paid, or anything like that, is not going to make me feel any better," he said. "That's not what makes me happy. In this game, the more one player gets, the more he takes away from what others can get. Is it going to make me feel any better to make an extra million, which, after you take everything [taxes and other deductions] away, is about $500,000? That million might be more important to the team.'' Now, do not take what Brady said out of context -- he is not going to be relegated to 13th in the NFL quarterback salary standings when he does his new contract either this offseason or next. But he gets it. He gets that when Peyton Manning agrees to a contract that will call for one single player to eat up 20 percent of the Colts' cap space in 2006 ($17.8 million out of a projected $89-million NFL cap), it's probably going to hurt the Colts' ability to build a good enough defense to beat the best teams consistently. Eating up 12 or 13 percent of the cap is probably a fair figure for a great quarterback -- if you're playing to win and not just trying to collect the best players. Brady understands that.

 

2. The Patriots didn't always trust Bledsoe to follow the game plan. The Bills' new staff found out in 2004 what Belichick and the Patriots already knew: Bledsoe too often likes to look for the big play instead of the smarter dumpoff or throwaway. The Patriots scouted and game-planned and strategized to call plays the staff thought gave New England's offense the best chance to win. And too often they felt Bledsoe tried to make the big play when it wasn't there. The Bills wanted Bledsoe to think short, but often he wouldn't.

 

3. Brady has been a better player since the trade. Look at the numbers. Since the Patriots used Bledsoe to acquire Buffalo's first-round draft pick in 2003 (the Patriots, after trading up one spot in the 2003 first round, used it on defensive lineman Ty Warren), Brady, with less or equal talent around him, has been better in all ways.

 

Year Player QB Rating (NFL rank) Pct. TD-Int W-L

2002 Brady 85.7 (9th) .621 28-14 9-7

Bledsoe 86.0 (8th) .615 24-15 8-8

2003 Brady 85.9 (10th) .602 23-12 14-2

Bledsoe 73.0 (21st) .582 11-12 6-10

2004 Brady 92.6 (9th) .608 28-14 14-2

Bledsoe 76.6 (25th) .567 20-16 9-7

Total Brady 87.8 .610 79-40 37-11

Bledsoe 79.2 .591 55-43 23-25

 

 

 

"Our offense isn't good enough,'' team president Tom Donahoe said the day the Bledsoe decision was announced last week. "We're not good enough on that side of the ball. And it's not just Drew Bledsoe. We've got to get better on the line. We've got to get more consistent. We've got to get more plays from our playmakers.''

 

Nice try, Tom. The other playmakers weren't whacked here. Just Bledsoe. And as much as the Bills praised him for helping them out of a black hole, his three-year, 23-25 tenure has to be considered a disappointment. Who'd have ever thought he'd be cut to make way for a totally unproven and, to this point, skittish-looking second-round draft choice ... particularly when the Bills have a playoff defense and the league's best special-teams unit right now?

 

One final note: I applaud Mularkey for making this tough call. And it was Mularkey's call. It's stunning to release a veteran who has won in this league and choose to play a kid. As I said, it's not a courageous move, but it's a tough move to make when your team seems playoff-ready. But Mularkey has an excellent teacher, quarterbacks coach Sam Wyche, and smart coordinator, Tom Clements, working with Losman day-to-day, preparing him to step in this summer. I look at it this way: You knew what you had with Bledsoe. He wasn't taking you to the promised land. You couldn't trust him. And so you go with the kid and hope for the best.

 

It's what the Patriots did. Served them pretty well, didn't it?

[JoeF]

Some of Peter King's best writing in a while. The coin toss story is just mind-boggling...Mularkey had to be pissed.

 

Kind of makes you wonder if the "we wanted to keep him here as JP's backup" comments were all BS...

 

 

Okay--so bring on JP .....

[N.Y. Orangeman]

Wow...what a read.

[AJ1]

I wondered how the hell Pitt wound up with the wind that day. I would have been more than pissed. I would have yanked Bledsoe out of the game for a series.

 

A guy who wouldn't put in any extra filmroom time, never corrected his short passes deficiencies, and made up his own plays...what a prize DB was.

 

Oh, Peter, Losman was a first round pick.

[Alaska Darin]

Some of Peter King's best writing in a while.  The coin toss story is just mind-boggling...Mularkey had to be pissed.

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I might have benched his ass right there. Unbelievable.

[JoeF]

I might have benched his ass right there.  Unbelievable.

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I was thinking the same thing AD--imagine if Matthews or Losman had come out with the O the first series....First off--the server would have blown....

 

The thought had to cross his mind...

 

No wonder we played like we were in a freakin fog.....when your QB can't even get the coin toss right--

[Rico]

Just more ammo to the argument that Bledsoe lost the Steelers game,

thank God he's gone.

 

As far as I'm concerned, he is an ex-Patriot, not an ex-Bill.

Never again do I want to see any game footage that shows him in a Bills uniform.

[AJ1]

Just more ammo to the argument that Bledsoe lost the Steelers game,

thank God he's gone.

 

As far as I'm concerned, he is an ex-Patriot, not an ex-Bill.

Never again do I want to see any game footage that shows him in a Bills uniform.

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I hope the Bills' '04 highlight video conveniently expurgates all references to #11. All I want to see on it is McGahee rushes, balls coming down in WR's hands, D and ST's stuff.

 

Oh, they can include the 2003 throw-away pass on 4th down. It's appropriate.

[Dr. K]

That coin toss story is telling. I'm surprised we never heard about it until now.

 

I was wasting time today and looked up Bledsoe's stats for the two New England, the Baltimore, and the Pittsburgh games this season. Here are his cumulative stats for those games:

 

Attempts: 116

Completions: 62

Comp. %: 53%

Yards/game: 186

TD passes: 1

Interceptions: 9

QB fumbles: 4

QB fumbles lost: 3

 

 

Bye-bye, Drew. You are a man of some quality, but this record is fatal.

[Rico]

That coin toss story is telling.  I'm surprised we never heard about it until now.

 

I was wasting time today and looked up Bledsoe's stats for the two New England, the Baltimore, and the Pittsburgh games this season.  Here are his cumulative stats for those games:

 

Attempts:          116

Completions:      62

Comp. %:          53%

Yards/game:      186

TD passes:            1

Interceptions:        9

QB fumbles:          4

QB fumbles lost:    3

Bye-bye, Drew.  You are a man of some quality, but this record is fatal.

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Defensive TDs scored on Drew's mistakes in those 4 games: 3 :I starred in Brokeback Mountain:

[Arkady Renko]

"The Patriots are 32-2 since jettisoning Drew Bledsoe in favor of Tom Brady three years ago." Under Bledsoe's picture. Probably not King, but an editor or whatever, but geez, is it that hard to get that record right?

[duey]

Wow. Give King his props on that article.

 

I am VERY excited to be starting the JP era.

[nodnarb]

To learn that Drew had been disobeying the coaches really pisses me off. I'm so fuggin thrilled that Bledsoe is gone, permanently. I knew he would never get us There, and I suspected that his ego was part of his problem. A facade of a work ethic and complacency in his bad habits are the rest.

 

Bledsoe is DELUDED about his abilities. I hope he lands in Dallas because it will ensure that never get anywhere. If Parcells thinks he can cure him, he'll find out the hard way.

 

Damn, what a fuggin waste.

[Corp000085]

That really irritates me about drew. I'm glad that this era is over in bills history though. Great read by king too... 1 good article in 5 years i guess is ok!

[Tom]

Very interesting.......

Lindell missed the 28yd FG kicking the ball East.... toward the Scoreboard. The wind had died down that day tho.

[TigerJ]

I might have benched his ass right there.  Unbelievable.

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That's my thinking too. It's one thing if Bledsoe had proven himself on the field in a Bills uniform, but he never really did.

[Sound_n_Fury]

Wow.  Give King his props on that article.

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Let the revisionist history begin. How in the world does King get a story like that?? TD's fingerprints are all over this. He let's King do the dirty work of tearing down DB while Teflon Tommy takes the high road, saying all the nice things about wanting to keep Drew as a backup. Pure BS.

 

Peter King is just a big nob who get's played by his sources to paint whatever picture they want the public to see. Didn't the whole NHL/NHLPA media circus give us enough of this crap over the past week?

 

I'm glad DB's gone and excited to see what JP can do. But it's stories like this (or anything written by Jerry Sullivan for that matter) really are starting to sour me on sports "journalism."

[JoeF]

Let the revisionist history begin.  How in the world does King get a story like that??  TD's fingerprints are all over this.  He let's King do the dirty work of tearing down DB while Teflon Tommy takes the high road, saying all the nice things about wanting to keep Drew as a backup.  Pure BS.

 

Peter King is just a big nob who get's played by his sources to paint whatever picture they want the public to see.  Didn't the whole NHL/NHLPA media circus give us enough of this crap over the past week?

 

I'm glad DB's gone and excited to see what JP can do.  But it's stories like this (or anything written by Jerry Sullivan for that matter) really are starting to sour me on sports "journalism."

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I have the opposite take. TD would want to keep a story like this out of the press. Stuff like this would cause "Are the inmates running the asylum" type speculation and "How long did they let King Drew pull this kind of stuff before they did something about it" type questions. Just different interpretation I guess.

 

The fact remains that we did screw up the wind direction--King just points the finger at Drew...and if TD were going to leak it-I think Lenny would have gotten this story--espn.com gets immeasurably more hits than SI.com..

[Sound_n_Fury]

I have the opposite take.  TD would want to keep a story like this out of the press.  Stuff like this would cause "Are the inmates running the asylum" type speculation and "How long did they let King Drew pull this kind of stuff before they did something about it" type questions.  Just different interpretation I guess.

 

The fact remains that we did screw up the wind direction--King just points the finger at Drew...and if TD were going to leak it-I think Lenny would have gotten this story--espn.com gets immeasurably more hits than SI.com..

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Nah, Lenny P only writes stories about how TD's shi_ don't stink.

 

This is just a payback to DB by someone in the Bills hiearchy. I can't see MM pulling something like this, but TD......if it walks like a duck...

 

Since the game in question was DB's last as a Bill, it refutes the inmates angle. Whoever the "source" was, it's a planted story. One way or another, it's just a way to "play" us.

[AJ1]

To learn that Drew had been disobeying the coaches really pisses me off. I'm so fuggin thrilled that Bledsoe is gone, permanently. I knew he would never get us There, and I suspected that his ego was part of his problem. A facade of a work ethic and complacency in his bad habits are the rest.

 

Bledsoe is DELUDED about his abilities. I hope he lands in Dallas because it will ensure that never get anywhere. If Parcells thinks he can cure him, he'll find out the hard way.

 

Damn, what a fuggin waste.

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And then Drew says, after the season's over, 'This is my team'

 

MM and TD immediately come up with an offer they know he will refuse.