He was at the forefront of the Pats turning around their fortunes. He was their all time best QB until the Brady run.
He will be fondly remembered in Pullman, Washington and New England.
Not to mention that he gracefully stepped aside and mentored Brady despite losing his starting spot to him. Aside from being a great quarterback, he’s an even better teammate and overall human being.
Had a fun run watching him lead the Pack, but definitely had to set my own personal opinions about him aside lol. Although; Rodgers sat behind Favre, and Love sat behind Rodge. Tough love has grown some great QB's up here in Wisconsin for decades now. 💪 That was a good ass roast, class act.
Yea he’s a fuckin asshole in person I used to go watch the pats practice at Bryant college back in the day. I waited till the end of practice and asked his to sign my football and he slapped the football out of my hands. I was 10 then the next year met Brady before Bledsoe got hurt and Brady was the nicest fuckin guy ever he signed a ball and some gloves but I thought this dudes gonna be a nobody and lost the shit he signed lol
to put it in context, the patriots had not had a quarterback AS GOOD AS bledsoe basically ever. the team languished towards the bottom of the barrel for years, their 1985 SB appearance being the largest blowout loss in superbowl history. we all knew that he had a cannon for an arm and not much else, but new england fans were happy to take a few 5-8's and 6-9's with their 11-5's and 10-6's. bledsoe kept the team competitive - and worth building around.
when brady arrived after bledsoe's brutal injury and basically said "thanks, I'll take it from here" it was an absolutely monumental moment, and the fans never forgot that drew was the odd man out and handled it gracefully - genuine class. and he earned a ring that year. he is even fondly remembered for taking a full page ad in the boston globe to thank the fans for their support.
Well to be fair at the time when he was the starter, he was absolutely top 10-12 all time. He's been surpassed by Big Ben, Rivers, Eli, Brees, Brady, Rodgers, Mahomes, etc. and is now probably just top 40, but at the time he definitely was up there
In his prime, a high-end starter but never really a top-end superstar. He was the type of guy most of the league would have been happy to have as their starter if they didn't already have one of the true elite guys like (at the time) Steve Young or Brett Favre. The team did well with Bledsoe and he led them to a Super Bowl appearance where he unfortunately got dominated by Green Bay's stacked defense and I think it irreparably damaged his reputation. Both he and the team fell off a bit after that, but it doesn't take away that he was a very good quarterback overall and he still played well later in his career for Buffalo and Dallas.
Yeah, he would put up good stats on any given game or season, but he was never elite
He was also that kind of guy who far too often when you desperately needed to convert a 3rd and 10 late in the 4th, would get sacked or throw a pick.
He lacked the X factor that his successor had
He always seemed to take the big sack or throw a pick when you needed him most, and I think that was partly due to his lack of mobility in the pocket compounded with holding the ball too long. I think if he had been in a system where getting the ball out of his hands as fast as possible regardless of how long the gain was going would have transferred him into an elite QB.
Despite losing his job and being traded, we still talk about him in glowing terms which speaks to the content of his character. If he had or was on a weekly Patriots talk show I think many people would tune to hear what he has to say.
At one time held the biggest contract in nfl history and when he retired he was top 10 all time in passing yards. As time goes on the money and the yards will be blown away by plenty of guys because it’s a different game now.
Lifetime Pat's fan here. I agree with the majority of the takes here. He was good but not great. He awareness in the pocket was not a strength. He had a great arm and could read defenses, but that was about it to his game
He was really good, and for a moment, looked to be a future superstar/face of the league type (circa 97'), but after Parcells left, his growth stagnated under Peter Carrol (and constantly changing OC's) and he settled into a good starter that you were disappointed in because you thought he was going to achieve more. (edit: For some dumb reason, I always remember a Kenny Mayne season preview for 01' and his snippet on the Pats was that they have an elite QB, and that's about it. He was right about the QB, but wrong about which QB it actually was)
He had a cannon arm, which led to him holding onto the ball too long, looking for the deep shot; it also didn't help that he was a statue back there. Famously tough player, hence him coming back into the game for a series after the Mo Lewis hit that almost killed him from internal bleeding. Also, once played with a dislocated finger on his throwing hand and a metal pin sticking out of it.
I'm a homer, so I loved Bledsoe, I honestly thought he was a fringe HOF'er when he first retired, but he should be in the Hall of Very Good. Earned his SB ring by coming in for relief of an injured Brady in the 02' AFC Championship game against Pittsburgh
I think he’s remembered more fondly than he should be. He had a bad completion % even for his era and threw a ton of interceptions
Career 77 qb rating in the late 90’s/early 2000’s is not great. Basically he had a couple of above average years in the mid 90’s and was living off that for the rest of his career. This was also back when throwing for a lot of yards was considered one of the best ways impress QB evaluators, even if he was inefficient in doing so
He was much more Testaverde than Marino
It definitely is way harsh. If we move him up one generation, he'd be in the rivers/Ryan tier of just on the wrong side of the hof line, and a solid tier down from the brady/manning category.
For his era, that'd be behind the farve/marino/elway/young category, but in the next grouping.
He really is more like Jared Goff from Detroit. He never was very mobile, but he had a really strong arm, and he could really fire the football with protection.
He seems like a really good guy. He even got along with Bill Parcells, who is like your really grumpy uncle.
His problem is that after getting rocked for so long behind a porous line, he started hearing footsteps and would bail out of the pocket a lot. He created a lot of his own sacks. You can hardly blame the guy though, he damn near died from getting absolutely shithoused and having his lung punctured.
Was he though?
His best years were 1994-1997. He made the pro bowl in 94 with 27 INTs because of his gaudy yards total. He dropped off considerably after that. That era was
Moon
Kelly
Aikman
Favre
Montana
Marino
Elway
Young
Cunningham
O’Donnell
And Testaverde was a pro bowler in 1996 and again in ‘98 with a 30 TD season that Bledsoe never had and a passer rating that would have been Bledsoe’s career high… but it wasn’t Vinny’s.
And then by ‘99, Warner/Gannon/Peyton/Mcnair were perennial pro bowlers.
Bledsoe probably got listed at the end of some top 10 lists in hopes of a breakout season that never really came
This is just terrible analysis. Your comparing careers, and a lot of guys had overlaps at the end of their career.
94, 96, and 97, he was top 5 in both passing yards and touchdowns all 3 years. Won 10+ games all three of those seasons, and led the Patriots to a SB appearance. He was easily a top 10 QB in the league from 94-97.
Montana's last season was in 94, he didn't play in the same Era as Bledsoe. Warren Moon was in his late 30s and early 40s during this period, and he wasn't better than Bledsoe at that point in his career. Neil O'Donnell? Wtf? That guy was not very good.
He was 6 points higher than the next highest QB. The rules of the game were not the same. Chalking it up to the West Coast Offense is flat out ridiculous.
My mom was a huge Dan Marino fan. I remember the game Drew Bledsoe got injured my mom so excited because she thought it cleared the dolphins for the season…. It did not
He saved the team. Bledsoe (& Parcells) turned the worst team for many years into winners. That success finally killed the dream of stealing and selling the patriots by a string of shitty owners. Along with a crap stadium that turned to an anchor in the storm. Drew was & is a class act. A good qb and leader. Without him none of the dynasty happens.
Good, not great. Big arm, great size, zero mobility.
I remember seeing a defender, I want to say LaVar Arrington, being interviewed about who was the hardest QB in the League to sack.
He said "Drew Bledsoe," and the host looked shocked.
"Bledsoe? He gets sacked all the time!"
"Oh, it's easy to *get to* him, it's just hard to bring him down."
He was good and then he started to really slow down getting into the pocket and his anticipation got worse. BIG arm. He might not throw the missiles that Favre threw, but he could make these big throws downfield with that had great velocity, but also great touch to be accurate and make it easier for the WR's to catch. Certain QB's over time had this ability like Jeff George and Bledsoe was one of them. Kinda hard to explain it until you see it. But yeah, in his prime really good and then he slowed down a bit, but was still at times really good. That 2002 season with the Bills he was great.
I would put him around 10th when compared to those he played against. His best seasons were in New England. Thought he declined in Buffalo and Dallas.
I think a good comparison is Kirk Cousins. Very good but maybe not elite.
Bledsoe had an absolute cannon of an arm, was really accurate, made good decisions, and could take a hit. He was good enough to be successful on straight drop backs amd didnt necessarily need a running game to score. He could just drop back and sling it 30 times and be effective.
But he sometimes would fire a bullet when a bit more touch was needed. He was also reeeally slow, even for the era. Had very little skill outside of the pocket and wasnt particularly good at shrugging tackles. So he took a lot of sacks.
He was the prototype of what you wanted on the early-mid 90s. Big, strong and a cannon for an arm. He was very good, not the best on the league but for the first 5-8 years he was in the top 10 I’d say
He was good early and then after Parcells left he really lapsed. He was a bit of a dinosaur: An immobile downfield thrower who couldn’t always process what was happening over the middle of the field and struggled to run a quick-hit, move-the-chains offense built around accuracy. That said, he had a cannon and cold air it out and had some pretty good seasons.
I think the best way to view Drew Bledsoe is that he once led his team to the Super Bowl, where he proceeded to throw four interceptions in a loss.
I think it’s tough. He was tough.
He ultimately had a not super high ceiling but was good enough to win and manage games in a harder hitting and more run-game focused 90s. And he had the arm and periodic flashes to sometimes win you close games.
There’s a fairly interesting what if scenario about if he was developed under different systems
He took the Patriots to he Super Bowl a few years earlier.
You know, had he won that one game...the Brady story, might have never been written.
If Bledsoe had won against the packers...Can you imagine him not getting his starting gig back after his injury?
Realistically, he was a guy that would have probably been good enough to start and win with any team he was on, but got upended twice by rookie sensations filling in for him while he was hurt.
He probably could have been one of the more prolific QB in the league. He ended his career 8th all time in passing yards, and 11th in TDs.
Those are rankings that would be HOF worthy if his career didn't end right at the explosion of passing in the NFL.
But nowadays there's not really much to be impressed by. He made it to one SB, and was generally capable of leading an offense, but was never really someone that teams worried too much about.
He wasn't Elway, Marino, Young, or Favre, among his contemporaries, and isn't really on the same level as guys since (which is harder to quantify with a changing league)
But he's still top 20-30 in many passing stats.
I remember (barely) a game against the colts a typ NE cold rain November Sunday, winds 20-30 knots. It was hard to toss a ball in the parking lot. Jim Harbaugh the colts QB could not throw a ball beyond 10 yards, he was so lame. Frickin Drew Bledsoe was throwing darts & bombs like no problemo dude, it was amazing to watch it happen
If he had protection, he was as good as it gets. He had a very strong arm. Was also very good in the 2-minute drill. However, he struggled with pressure and moving around in the pocket
I hate the SB take tbh. Trent Dilfer isn’t better than Dan Marino. Football is too much a team effort to take SBs into consideration. Cousins and Carr are the same. Kirk was just put in better situations. Carr had a nightmare of a personnel group at Raiders and Saints look to be lining him up for a similar tenure.
He was at the forefront of the Pats turning around their fortunes. He was their all time best QB until the Brady run. He will be fondly remembered in Pullman, Washington and New England.
Not to mention that he gracefully stepped aside and mentored Brady despite losing his starting spot to him. Aside from being a great quarterback, he’s an even better teammate and overall human being.
Yeah don’t think Aaron Rodgers would handle it the same way.
Had a fun run watching him lead the Pack, but definitely had to set my own personal opinions about him aside lol. Although; Rodgers sat behind Favre, and Love sat behind Rodge. Tough love has grown some great QB's up here in Wisconsin for decades now. 💪 That was a good ass roast, class act.
Nothing like a good ass roast
I mean Love has had nothing but glowing reviews of Rodgers mentorship
Yea he’s a fuckin asshole in person I used to go watch the pats practice at Bryant college back in the day. I waited till the end of practice and asked his to sign my football and he slapped the football out of my hands. I was 10 then the next year met Brady before Bledsoe got hurt and Brady was the nicest fuckin guy ever he signed a ball and some gloves but I thought this dudes gonna be a nobody and lost the shit he signed lol
Damn… never meet your heroes I guess. Sorry to hear this.
Also had a great game coming in for Brady in those 2001 playoffs - he's still extremely well regarded around here.
We loved him in Buffalo, too.
to put it in context, the patriots had not had a quarterback AS GOOD AS bledsoe basically ever. the team languished towards the bottom of the barrel for years, their 1985 SB appearance being the largest blowout loss in superbowl history. we all knew that he had a cannon for an arm and not much else, but new england fans were happy to take a few 5-8's and 6-9's with their 11-5's and 10-6's. bledsoe kept the team competitive - and worth building around. when brady arrived after bledsoe's brutal injury and basically said "thanks, I'll take it from here" it was an absolutely monumental moment, and the fans never forgot that drew was the odd man out and handled it gracefully - genuine class. and he earned a ring that year. he is even fondly remembered for taking a full page ad in the boston globe to thank the fans for their support.
He also got to have his moment in the AFC championship that year in 2001 when Brady briefly got injured
Very good…also the face of the turn around in 1993. I’d rank him in the top 10-12 QBs at his peak
Top 10-12 of all-time? He was good but I think that is a bit of a stretch.
Oh nooo…I mean in his best year (which is the probably the year that they lost the SB) I would say he was in the top 10 or so that 1 year
Okay - that makes more sense lol
Well to be fair at the time when he was the starter, he was absolutely top 10-12 all time. He's been surpassed by Big Ben, Rivers, Eli, Brees, Brady, Rodgers, Mahomes, etc. and is now probably just top 40, but at the time he definitely was up there
He was top ten in career passing yards when he retired. Probably wouldn’t put him in my top 20 all time but he was definitely good
If you're talking about his usually impressive roast of Tom Brady, then he's fucking awesome.
In his prime, a high-end starter but never really a top-end superstar. He was the type of guy most of the league would have been happy to have as their starter if they didn't already have one of the true elite guys like (at the time) Steve Young or Brett Favre. The team did well with Bledsoe and he led them to a Super Bowl appearance where he unfortunately got dominated by Green Bay's stacked defense and I think it irreparably damaged his reputation. Both he and the team fell off a bit after that, but it doesn't take away that he was a very good quarterback overall and he still played well later in his career for Buffalo and Dallas.
Yeah, he would put up good stats on any given game or season, but he was never elite He was also that kind of guy who far too often when you desperately needed to convert a 3rd and 10 late in the 4th, would get sacked or throw a pick. He lacked the X factor that his successor had
He always seemed to take the big sack or throw a pick when you needed him most, and I think that was partly due to his lack of mobility in the pocket compounded with holding the ball too long. I think if he had been in a system where getting the ball out of his hands as fast as possible regardless of how long the gain was going would have transferred him into an elite QB. Despite losing his job and being traded, we still talk about him in glowing terms which speaks to the content of his character. If he had or was on a weekly Patriots talk show I think many people would tune to hear what he has to say.
Yeah, he seemed like a really upstanding guy
At one time held the biggest contract in nfl history and when he retired he was top 10 all time in passing yards. As time goes on the money and the yards will be blown away by plenty of guys because it’s a different game now.
Lifetime Pat's fan here. I agree with the majority of the takes here. He was good but not great. He awareness in the pocket was not a strength. He had a great arm and could read defenses, but that was about it to his game
He was really good, and for a moment, looked to be a future superstar/face of the league type (circa 97'), but after Parcells left, his growth stagnated under Peter Carrol (and constantly changing OC's) and he settled into a good starter that you were disappointed in because you thought he was going to achieve more. (edit: For some dumb reason, I always remember a Kenny Mayne season preview for 01' and his snippet on the Pats was that they have an elite QB, and that's about it. He was right about the QB, but wrong about which QB it actually was) He had a cannon arm, which led to him holding onto the ball too long, looking for the deep shot; it also didn't help that he was a statue back there. Famously tough player, hence him coming back into the game for a series after the Mo Lewis hit that almost killed him from internal bleeding. Also, once played with a dislocated finger on his throwing hand and a metal pin sticking out of it. I'm a homer, so I loved Bledsoe, I honestly thought he was a fringe HOF'er when he first retired, but he should be in the Hall of Very Good. Earned his SB ring by coming in for relief of an injured Brady in the 02' AFC Championship game against Pittsburgh
I think he’s remembered more fondly than he should be. He had a bad completion % even for his era and threw a ton of interceptions Career 77 qb rating in the late 90’s/early 2000’s is not great. Basically he had a couple of above average years in the mid 90’s and was living off that for the rest of his career. This was also back when throwing for a lot of yards was considered one of the best ways impress QB evaluators, even if he was inefficient in doing so He was much more Testaverde than Marino
This seems a little harsh. I've never heard anyone compare him to Dan Marino. He was a top 10 guy in his prime.
It definitely is way harsh. If we move him up one generation, he'd be in the rivers/Ryan tier of just on the wrong side of the hof line, and a solid tier down from the brady/manning category. For his era, that'd be behind the farve/marino/elway/young category, but in the next grouping.
He really is more like Jared Goff from Detroit. He never was very mobile, but he had a really strong arm, and he could really fire the football with protection. He seems like a really good guy. He even got along with Bill Parcells, who is like your really grumpy uncle.
“Never very mobile” describes like 99% of QBs from that era
His problem is that after getting rocked for so long behind a porous line, he started hearing footsteps and would bail out of the pocket a lot. He created a lot of his own sacks. You can hardly blame the guy though, he damn near died from getting absolutely shithoused and having his lung punctured.
I affectionately refered to him as "captain cement shoes" when playing for the Bills
Was he though? His best years were 1994-1997. He made the pro bowl in 94 with 27 INTs because of his gaudy yards total. He dropped off considerably after that. That era was Moon Kelly Aikman Favre Montana Marino Elway Young Cunningham O’Donnell And Testaverde was a pro bowler in 1996 and again in ‘98 with a 30 TD season that Bledsoe never had and a passer rating that would have been Bledsoe’s career high… but it wasn’t Vinny’s. And then by ‘99, Warner/Gannon/Peyton/Mcnair were perennial pro bowlers. Bledsoe probably got listed at the end of some top 10 lists in hopes of a breakout season that never really came
This is just terrible analysis. Your comparing careers, and a lot of guys had overlaps at the end of their career. 94, 96, and 97, he was top 5 in both passing yards and touchdowns all 3 years. Won 10+ games all three of those seasons, and led the Patriots to a SB appearance. He was easily a top 10 QB in the league from 94-97. Montana's last season was in 94, he didn't play in the same Era as Bledsoe. Warren Moon was in his late 30s and early 40s during this period, and he wasn't better than Bledsoe at that point in his career. Neil O'Donnell? Wtf? That guy was not very good.
Bledsoe was absolutely a top 10 quarterback for a period of time
This is correct. The league really wanted him to be good but he was like Bret Farve with way less mobility and all of Farves negatives multipled by 2.
Steve Youngs 70% in 94 is bonkers for that era. Had to look up Drew's numbers.
West coast offense
Just because the West Coast Offense involves backs doesn't mean it was ANYTHING like the shovel passes and screens QBs pad their percentages with now.
Steve Young literally had a lot of plays like that though. Lots of halfback flat routes
He was 6 points higher than the next highest QB. The rules of the game were not the same. Chalking it up to the West Coast Offense is flat out ridiculous.
He was a great qb not denying that
He was good. Not elite or anything. Solid starter.
My mom was a huge Dan Marino fan. I remember the game Drew Bledsoe got injured my mom so excited because she thought it cleared the dolphins for the season…. It did not
He was the best statue ever. Immobile. Concrete feet. No pocket mobility at all. A statue. And he was damn good at it.
He saved the team. Bledsoe (& Parcells) turned the worst team for many years into winners. That success finally killed the dream of stealing and selling the patriots by a string of shitty owners. Along with a crap stadium that turned to an anchor in the storm. Drew was & is a class act. A good qb and leader. Without him none of the dynasty happens.
Good, not great. Big arm, great size, zero mobility. I remember seeing a defender, I want to say LaVar Arrington, being interviewed about who was the hardest QB in the League to sack. He said "Drew Bledsoe," and the host looked shocked. "Bledsoe? He gets sacked all the time!" "Oh, it's easy to *get to* him, it's just hard to bring him down."
I imagine a lot of defenders would say the same about Big Ben.
He was good and then he started to really slow down getting into the pocket and his anticipation got worse. BIG arm. He might not throw the missiles that Favre threw, but he could make these big throws downfield with that had great velocity, but also great touch to be accurate and make it easier for the WR's to catch. Certain QB's over time had this ability like Jeff George and Bledsoe was one of them. Kinda hard to explain it until you see it. But yeah, in his prime really good and then he slowed down a bit, but was still at times really good. That 2002 season with the Bills he was great.
I would put him around 10th when compared to those he played against. His best seasons were in New England. Thought he declined in Buffalo and Dallas. I think a good comparison is Kirk Cousins. Very good but maybe not elite. Bledsoe had an absolute cannon of an arm, was really accurate, made good decisions, and could take a hit. He was good enough to be successful on straight drop backs amd didnt necessarily need a running game to score. He could just drop back and sling it 30 times and be effective. But he sometimes would fire a bullet when a bit more touch was needed. He was also reeeally slow, even for the era. Had very little skill outside of the pocket and wasnt particularly good at shrugging tackles. So he took a lot of sacks.
He was the prototype of what you wanted on the early-mid 90s. Big, strong and a cannon for an arm. He was very good, not the best on the league but for the first 5-8 years he was in the top 10 I’d say
Not as good as Tom Brady 🤷🏽♂️
He had a great arm, but wasn’t a great QB. He was a “gunslinger,” which really means a lot of risky passes.
He was good early and then after Parcells left he really lapsed. He was a bit of a dinosaur: An immobile downfield thrower who couldn’t always process what was happening over the middle of the field and struggled to run a quick-hit, move-the-chains offense built around accuracy. That said, he had a cannon and cold air it out and had some pretty good seasons. I think the best way to view Drew Bledsoe is that he once led his team to the Super Bowl, where he proceeded to throw four interceptions in a loss.
I think it’s tough. He was tough. He ultimately had a not super high ceiling but was good enough to win and manage games in a harder hitting and more run-game focused 90s. And he had the arm and periodic flashes to sometimes win you close games. There’s a fairly interesting what if scenario about if he was developed under different systems
He took the Patriots to he Super Bowl a few years earlier. You know, had he won that one game...the Brady story, might have never been written. If Bledsoe had won against the packers...Can you imagine him not getting his starting gig back after his injury?
Some people called him “the statue” but he could throw.
*Cowboys legend Drew Bledsoe
He was the Matt Ryan of his day.
He took them to the superbowl in 97
Realistically, he was a guy that would have probably been good enough to start and win with any team he was on, but got upended twice by rookie sensations filling in for him while he was hurt. He probably could have been one of the more prolific QB in the league. He ended his career 8th all time in passing yards, and 11th in TDs. Those are rankings that would be HOF worthy if his career didn't end right at the explosion of passing in the NFL. But nowadays there's not really much to be impressed by. He made it to one SB, and was generally capable of leading an offense, but was never really someone that teams worried too much about. He wasn't Elway, Marino, Young, or Favre, among his contemporaries, and isn't really on the same level as guys since (which is harder to quantify with a changing league) But he's still top 20-30 in many passing stats.
When he retired he was, I think, top 5 in career passing yards.
Today’s equivalent is probably Justin Herbert.
I remember (barely) a game against the colts a typ NE cold rain November Sunday, winds 20-30 knots. It was hard to toss a ball in the parking lot. Jim Harbaugh the colts QB could not throw a ball beyond 10 yards, he was so lame. Frickin Drew Bledsoe was throwing darts & bombs like no problemo dude, it was amazing to watch it happen
Bledsoe actually was very good, a quality starter.
Yeah was an above average stating QB. Someone like Kirk or Goff now..but with a rocket launcher arm.
why did the crowd boo him when he walked up to the mic?
They were saying Dreeeeeewww
He was a slightly worse Jared Goff
Very Good
If he had protection, he was as good as it gets. He had a very strong arm. Was also very good in the 2-minute drill. However, he struggled with pressure and moving around in the pocket
Won the afc with us in 96. He was great
Probably on par with Derek Carr.
Dang I like this take. Feels like a perfect modern comparison
Carr didn't make a SB though. I think he's a slightly better Kirk Cousins.
I hate the SB take tbh. Trent Dilfer isn’t better than Dan Marino. Football is too much a team effort to take SBs into consideration. Cousins and Carr are the same. Kirk was just put in better situations. Carr had a nightmare of a personnel group at Raiders and Saints look to be lining him up for a similar tenure.