Quarterback? It’s Drew, That’s Who
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Posted Under: 2000 Patriots Season
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This is the beginning of a series on positional analysis of the 2000 Patriots. Today: Quarterbacks.
Groundhog Day has come and gone. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, winter will last six more weeks, and Drew Bledsoe still stands to make nine million bucks next year.
No deal yet. Ouch on several fronts.
Ouch, the 2001 salary cap. Ouch, Bledsoe becomes an UFA after this coming season. Ouch, someone high up in the Patriot organization perhaps thinks that Bledsoe is no longer the franchise, the future of this organization, and that a new direction is necessary.
If Bledsoe is going to leave the Patriots, it certainly isn’t reflected in either Bledsoe himself or his agent, Leigh Steinberg. Bledsoe insists he wants to finish his career in Foxborough, and Steinberg has never sounded pessimistic. Steinberg did mention the “lack of urgency” in previous years for the Patriots to redo Bledsoe’s contract, but thinks that the organization feels “urgency” at this time.
Or do they?
Bledsoe has been arguably the hottest topic of debate across Patriot Nation over the last six months. Since the team stumbled out of the starting blocks this past season and never recovered, Bledsoe has been at the center of a firestorm surrounding his long term future with the team. Many fans and experts strongly believe that Bledsoe is better off somewhere else, and that the Patriots would be better off with a less expensive, more mobile quarterback.
The recently-played Super Bowl provides priceless ammunition for those who wish Bledsoe would go bye-bye. Why bother to maintain and develop a pure passer like Bledsoe, when passing stiffs like Kerry Collins and Trent Dilfer played for The Vince this year? It seems now that it would make more sense to develop the defense and de-emphasize the passing game, thinks the anti-Bledsoe bunch.
This column has always maintained a pro-Bledsoe approach. What’s wrong with the Patriots has little, if anything, to do with Bledsoe himself. But what’s part of the solution absolutely must include Bledsoe. If anyone is going to get the Patriots anywhere close to a Vince, Bledsoe is the key man. He was in 1996, and he will be in 2001. Period.
Some folks argue that if Bledsoe is so good, he should thrive no matter what surrounds him. If this is you, then go find me any quarterback in NFL history who has flourished with a lousy offensive line. Better yet, ask Archie Manning, Jim Plunkett and Dan Pastorini their opinions on this subject.
Fix the offensive line. Then if Bledsoe is still ineffective, get rid of him. End of discussion.
When Bledsoe has had decent protection, his past performance and results speak for themselves. He produces in the clutch. He pulls out come-from-behind wins. He plays tough. And he has the ability to thread the needle with pinpoint passes with the best of them.
Bledsoe is not immune from mistakes and poor decisions. Following the 1996 AFC Championship Game, Joe Theismann said of Bledsoe’s penchant for mistakes, “Drew is a quarterback that is merely trying to make a play” when he gets into tight situations. Back in 1996, this was used as a comparison to his Super Bowl foe, Brett Favre, which back then Bledsoe paled greatly. Nowadays, Bledsoe has been far less susceptible to those kind of split-second brain cramps.
But Bledsoe still remains in the final year of his contract, with no major movement or negotiations reported. Is this the end of the line for Bledsoe in New England?
A rumour came down a few weeks back that had Bledsoe going to Seattle, and another deal with San Diego that would allow the Pats to take Michael Vick of Virginia Tech with the top pick in the draft. That was not the first time Bledsoe was rumoured to be off to Seattle. Mike Holmgren would take Bledsoe in a heartbeat, and Bledsoe might enjoy a transfer to his native state of Washington.
Noticeably silent in all this mix is Bob Kraft, a supposed Bledsoe proponent. Where does Kraft stand in this matter? Is there an urgency to get Bledsoe signed? Or will Bledsoe be moved? It seems very unlikely that Kraft would allow Bledsoe to play this year at $9 million and risk letting him walk at season’s end. He either signs Bledsoe or trades him immediately.
If he leaves, then what?
Honk if you think Michael Bishop would be an ideal XFL quarterback. He’d probably be in on that scrum for who gets the opening kickoff if he weren’t a quarterback.
Bishop has also been a hot topic around these parts. If there is one regret to each of the last two seasons, it is that Bishop was never given the chance to show Patriot Nation what he can do under real game situations for an extended period of time. Bledsoe did spend much of 2000 on the sidelines due to a finger injury, but it was John Friesz that filled in, not Bishop.
Patriot Nation howled in disgust. Despite words to the contrary by Bishop’s coach at K-State, the word out of the Patriot camp was that Bishop could never learn the Patriot playbook to the coaches’ satisfaction. Bledsoe’s injury was Bishop’s chance to finally show everyone what he was made of, but it never came to pass.
Bishop’s main 2000 contributions were in the form of third down option plays, and a Hail Mary or three. The former failed miserably, especially in the loss at Indianapolis. The latter worked against the Colts, but never again. Charlie Weis’ experiment with Bishop on third downs became predictable, and Bishop’s running skills were no match for a defense totally keyed on him.
Friesz will not likely be here in 2001 due to cap considerations. His cap number in 2001 is $2.7 million, and is not signed beyond 2001. His age also works greatly against him (he turns 34 in June).
If Bledsoe stays, Bishop would be the favorite to become the backup and Tom Brady the third stringer. Bishop would like to start somewhere, and feels that he has no future in New England.
But if Bledsoe is dealt, all bets are off. One unlikely scenario might be that Bishop could start, and the Patriots might take Purdue’s Drew Brees high in the draft, but it might have to be at the six. Brees is not what the Pats need at six, and he might not still be on the board in the second round.
There is really no viable scenario that helps the Patriots if they deal Bledsoe, absent of some team out there that makes an outlandish offer the Patriots simply can’t refuse. The Pats won’t get Vick unless the planets realign. Given that, the Pats need to draft an offensive lineman early, plain and simple. Trading Bledsoe may force a change in that strategy, and the team cannot afford that at this time.
As for Bishop, it behoves the Patriots to either use this guy or lose this guy. He remains one of the most intriguing Patriots in recent memory. You seem to see an untapped gold mine in this guy, but no one has gone for the pick axes yet. The coaches may say that this guy can’t learn playbooks, but it’s gotten to the point that we simply need to see this fact for ourselves.
And if Bishop can’t stand being someone’s backup, then this is the guy you need to deal, not Bledsoe. Bishop won’t bring near the prizes that Bledsoe will bring, but he has some trade value. If nothing else, the guy that drafted him might envision him as the first quarterback in Houston Texans’ history. And the Texans will come stocked with high draft picks, too.
Face it, the easiest thing to do is to lock Bledsoe up for his career, and protect him better. If the signing bonus is a problem, dump CMGI and get new naming rights. Get a solid corporation, not some dot-com fly-by-night one day wonder. Let them underwrite Bledsoe as part of the deal.
If you still think the Patriots should trade Bledsoe, then follow the Baltimore Ravens real close next year. Because if that great defense begins to crack, that poor team won’t even get a whiff of the top of their division, let alone a chance to defend their Vince. That team will slide down the has-been chute faster than you can say “NFL parity”.
And don’t think for a second that Jim Fassel wouldn’t kill to have Bledsoe on his team right now, never mind Holmgren.
Next position analysis: Running backs.
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