When Was Bledsoe Status Mistake Made?

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

In my mind these are the four choices.

 

I personally would chose option 3 as my assessment. I think the Bills clearly needed an upgrade over RJ and AVP after the 2001 3-13 debacle. On the field, Drew merited his Pro Bowl nod for his gunslinging to a remarkable upgrade in record to 8-8 in the 2002 season.

 

Bledsoe proved to be extremely effective for only half that season as opposing defenses caught up with him in the second half once they had plenty of tape to review, as Bledsoe threw a whole bunch of passes and took his usual amount of wicked sacks behind relatively poor pass pro from our young OL, and due to winter weather. However, his performance for the season as a whole, a nice inish against the Bungles and him making a comeback from losing his jpb easily made him one of the top 3 QBs in the conference that tear.

 

Of great note since this sport is a business, Bledsoe's presence in rejuvenating interest in the team after a lousy 3-13 cap hell season was a key. Say what you want about his play, but from the way he shut up and took it for the team when Brady booted him out his job because Brady is simply a better QB was admirble and I only wish most NFL brats had his team first character.

 

TD did great work pulling off a trade for a starting QB within the division and even with the two losses to NE because BB knew Bledsoe's failings the team still made a massive improvement in their record. In addition, NE did take it in the chops for a season losing Bledsoe, not because they missed him at all with a better QB in place but because the accelerated cap hit cost this team the ability to sign marginally better players and I attribute the SB win (with Bledsoe actually playing an essential role QBing the majority of a must-win game and then correctly shtting up for the team as the better QB came bacj for the SB) followed by a playoff miss I attribute to the accelerated cap hit, followed by an SB win once that cap penalty was off the books as why teams don't like trading a high priced player at all and particularly within the division.

 

Yet, his play simply stunk up the joint last year and I would have just counted his 1 good year on the field and rejuvenation of the business as plusses and cut my losses by saying adios last off-season.

 

I saw the utility of what TD tried to do and you only keep DB if you can resign him to a cap friendly deal for 2004 which he did. Howevr, TD and the braintrust made a mistake by not getting a back-up at #2 capable of taking over for DB if his play stayed south. It has. Travis Brown probably wasn't the #2 we needed even before his injury and the rookie Losman also was not the #2 we needed even before his injury.

 

Marl me down as one who thinks pretty clearly the mistake was in resigning him because I think he was an excellent acquisition for the Bills in terms of his first year onfield play and his off-field contributions to the business.

 

I would disagree strongly with those who would argue that we never should have acquired him because they hate him, think he is overrated, or whatever.

 

Our choices at the time were to resign RJ (right make that argument amd evem folks who hate DB will laugh), resign AVP (he's in the right place for the Bills right where he is now) or take another available QB (Jeff Blake seems in retrospect to be he best available QB so getting Bledsoe for a song courtesy of an NE subsidy for two years was the best available option.

 

Those who argue he never won correctly find some stats which support this point but simply ignore the fact that he QB'ed a team to the SB under the expert guidance of Parcells and actually played an essential role and earning his SB ring in being part of the 2001 season Pats. The argument that he has NEVER been a winner simply holds no water because it is wrong. the vast majority of QBs would kill to have DBs deserved AFC Champion ring and his SB ring he deserved.

 

Likewise I disagree strongly with those who argue that his acquisition was a decision of TDs with no faults despite my sense that on balamce it was the right move to make. There was somewhat more good to getting him rather than sticking with RJ or going with Blake or Chandler, but he stunk so bad last year the Bills really should have said thanks but no thanks to him and used the cap savings to make the deal for Volek and also bid a little higher for Kordell to fight it out for the #1 and #2 Bills job with Losman as our disater QB.

 

Signing him to his current deal was the right thing to do if your're going to rsign him, but the 0-3 performance strongly indicates that it was a poor assessment by our braintrust that he was judged salavageable and it was simply foolish not have a higher quality #2 than Travis Brown.

 

As it stands, Bledsoe can still be cut after June , 2005 and his remaining cap hit will not be too bad for 2005 and 2006, but this year appears to be circling the drain. Though in my mind blaming this all on DB and his play is silly as even a better QB would likely post similar results behind this OL, with Sunday's D performance against Brady and with our OC still searching for an effective O plan would not make much of a difference in terms of the bottomline for this team.

 

At any rate, TD done good by getting him but he should have quit while we ahead before this season.

[Pete]

Bledsoe had no takers when NE offered him. NE had to get rid of him- we way overpaid. His ridiculous contract used up precious cap space which could of been used to address other weakness on our team. At the time me and a few others were begging for TD to stay away from Drew and to sign Jeff Blake on the cheap. In hindsight another great move would of been to sign Jon Kitna. I am still pissed we gave away a #1 for Drew

[Typical TBD Guy]

Nice summary, FFS (or rather nice novel!).

 

I, too, voted for option 3.

 

I only disagreed with your second to last paragraph where you state that even a better QB would be similarly as unproductive with our Bills. I'd say that at least two-thirds of the starting NFL QB's would give us noticeably more offensive production with the same Bills offense. Brady, Pennington, McNair, Peyton Manning, Favre, McNabb, Culpepper, Hasselbeck, Green right off the top of my head...even the semi-washed up vets like Kitna, Warner, Gannon, Plummer, Brunell...hell some of the newbies like Harrington, Leftwich, Bulger, Roethlisberger, Carr, etc could do more with what we currently have.

[KOKBILLS]

Bledsoe had no takers when NE offered him.  NE had to get rid of him- we way overpaid.  His ridiculous contract used up precious cap space which could of been used to address other weakness on our team.  At the time me and a few others were begging for TD to stay away from Drew and to sign Jeff Blake on the cheap.  In hindsight another great move would of been to sign Jon Kitna.  I am still pissed we gave away a #1 for Drew

57071[/snapback]

 

 

I'll tell you Brother, I wish I had had that type of foresight, but I did not...I trusted TD, and even though I was obviously never a Bledsoe Fan, I always assumed (without any investigation admittedly...) that Drew was still a good QB...We had gone through that awful year, we had no QB, Flutie/Johnson, etc...I figured Drew was a Gods send...And I wanted to believe it! Bought the Jersey, blah, blah, blah...

 

So it was understandable that Drew got a long pass from me when he came out on fire those first 8 Games of 2002...And when he made dumb mistakes, like the pass late in the KC Road Game that cost us a victory and maybe even a chance at a Playoff birth, I simply was blinded to what would come.

 

At the beginning of 2003 I was still a believer, especially after that 2-0 start. But when Bledsoe started going bad, and the terms of his current Deal were made public, I started to wonder. Then sometime during last Season Howard Simon started coming out against Bledsoe, and certainly against re-uping his Deal. I knew I had to really think about this because the evidence began to mount....Then I read about the later years in NE. I listened to long time Patsies Fans, and I read the old articles. Suddenly there was a new life to this Bledsoe situation for me, and I knew with every Sack and bad Game Drew played I was less likely to support bringing him back...AT ALL...

 

By the time 2003 was over, I was actually excited...I knew the Bills could get this huge amount of Cap Savings by waiving Drew, and I thought TD had a unique opportunity to really help this Roster overall. I envisioned a couple O-Lineman, some needed Depth, and I thought Volek would be the perfect Guy to bring in here short term. There is no way in the world I could ever support any scenerio that brought Drew back in 2004, and unfortunately it's looking like with a lot of help and information from Folks like you Pete, and Spiked, the opinions I gathered were all too correct. This Team is in desperate need of additional talent, and there is nothing Drew is doing that Volek could not do, and probably do better. Plus, with the Pick of JP, Drew is not going to be needed at all in 2005, and it's going to cost us money to Cut him...whatever...Should have done it when there was ZERO Cap ramifications...What a missed opportunity...

 

And one thing is certain, I always based my opinions first and formost on what would help the Bills WIN FREAKING GAMES. I don't really care what the reasons are, Drew is 27-43 as a Starter dating back almost 4.5 full Seasons now!! So what if he's a great talent and just a jinx...I don't care, I want to Win and Drew has not been a winning QB for so long now maybe he's just forgotten what it's like. And those who like to point out that Drew is never at fault just don't understand the importance of the QB as the leader of the Offense. Good QB's, no matter where they are Drafted or what they are paid, inspire greatness in their Teammates. Drew's a nice guy, but he's not inspiring a damn thing in any of these guys. I watched Jim Kelly too long, I know what a real QB is. And DB's just not the QB for me... B)

[PromoTheRobot]

It should have been a red flag that the Pats would trade Drew to a division opponent. They had zero respect for his skills, and you can see exactly why now. Tom Donahoe must own a lot of time shares, swamp land, and 10% of the Brooklyn Bridge by now.

 

PTR

[Rico]

I'll tell you Brother, I wish I had had that type of foresight, but I did not...I trusted TD, and even though I was obviously never a Bledsoe Fan, I always assumed (without any investigation admittedly...) that Drew was still a good QB...We had gone through that awful year, we had no QB, Flutie/Johnson, etc...I figured Drew was a Gods send...And I wanted to believe it! Bought the Jersey, blah, blah, blah...

 

So it was understandable that Drew got a long pass from me when he came out on fire those first 8 Games of 2002...And when he made dumb mistakes, like the pass late in the KC Road Game that cost us a victory and maybe even a chance at a Playoff birth, I simply was blinded to what would come.

 

At the beginning of 2003 I was still a believer, especially after that 2-0 start. But when Bledsoe started going bad, and the terms of his current Deal were made public, I started to wonder. Then sometime during last Season Howard Simon started coming out against Bledsoe, and certainly against re-uping his Deal. I knew I had to really think about this because the evidence began to mount....Then I read about the later years in NE. I listened to long time Patsies Fans, and I read the old articles. Suddenly there was a new life to this Bledsoe situation for me, and I knew with every Sack and bad Game Drew played I was less likely to support bringing him back...AT ALL...

 

By the time 2003 was over, I was actually excited...I knew the Bills could get this huge amount of Cap Savings by waiving Drew, and I thought TD had a unique opportunity to really help this Roster overall. I envisioned a couple O-Lineman, some needed Depth, and I thought Volek would be the perfect Guy to bring in here short term. There is no way in the world I could ever support any scenerio that brought Drew back in 2004, and unfortunately it's looking like with a lot of help and information from Folks like you Pete, and Spiked, the opinions I gathered were all too correct. This Team is in desperate need of additional talent, and there is nothing Drew is doing that Volek could not do, and probably do better. Plus, with the Pick of JP, Drew is not going to be needed at all in 2005, and it's going to cost us money to Cut him...whatever...Should have done it when there was ZERO Cap ramifications...What a missed opportunity...

 

And one thing is certain, I always based my opinions first and formost on what would help the Bills WIN FREAKING GAMES. I don't really care what the reasons are, Drew is 27-43 as a Starter dating back almost 4.5 full Seasons now!! So what if he's a great talent and just a jinx...I don't care, I want to Win and Drew has not been a winning QB for so long now maybe he's just forgotten what it's like. And those who like to point out that Drew is never at fault just don't understand the importance of the QB as the leader of the Offense. Good QB's, no matter where they are Drafted or what they are paid, inspire greatness in their Teammates. Drew's a nice guy, but he's not inspiring a damn thing in any of these guys. I watched Jim Kelly too long, I know what a real QB is. And DB's just not the QB for me... B)

57085[/snapback]

GREAT post, I agree 100%. Exactly mirrors my feelings on Bledsoe.

I never liked him or his game when he was with the Pats, but after a year of RJ/AVP, the pep rally, & the 1st half of 2002, I was on board with Drew.

Too bad reality started to settle in.

 

And FFS is dead-on when he writes

TD and the braintrust made a mistake by not getting a back-up at #2 capable of taking over for DB if his play stayed south. It has. Travis Brown probably wasn't the #2 we needed even before his injury and the rookie Losman also was not the #2 we needed even before his injury.

Other than re-signing Bledsoe, that was TD's biggest mistake this year.

[obie_wan]

And FFS is dead-on when he writes

Other than re-signing Bledsoe, that was TD's biggest mistake this year.

57130[/snapback]

 

 

Exactly- why give up 3 draft picks for your future QB, then extend Drew and pay him more money than he was under contract for. $8.75 mil for 2004.

 

 

With all the free agent QBs, TD could have negotiated a smaller contract for Drew, instead of a bigger one. Or better yet, waited and signed Kerry Collins.

And what of TD's refusal to give up next year's #3 for Drew Henson - who was good enough for Parcell's to commit to.

 

 

 

 

The masses will argue that Teflon Tom needed to lower Drew's hit. But why? They had enough cap room to fit him in for 2004 and they haven't used the cap savings to improve the OL or anywhere else with impact players (except Schoebel)

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Bledsoe had no takers when NE offered him.  NE had to get rid of him- we way overpaid.  His ridiculous contract used up precious cap space which could of been used to address other weakness on our team.  At the time me and a few others were begging for TD to stay away from Drew and to sign Jeff Blake on the cheap.  In hindsight another great move would of been to sign Jon Kitna.  I am still pissed we gave away a #1 for Drew

57071[/snapback]

 

 

Thanks to all for the feedback. As far as the Bledsoe v. Blake v. Kitna theory, much of this is simply theory (as that is what us fans actually thrive on so its finr with me) as what happened happened and what didn't didn't so one can't know for sure.

 

Hpwever, frp, wjat happened, Kitna may well have been a better bet than Bledsoe but given his sorry previous performance out west I don't know anyone who would have had the foresight of how he performed under Marvin Lewis last year to make this deal. Hinsght is all over this one. As far as Blake there is some foresight here as getting him was certinly possible for the Bills, but I feel much better about his being a player to have as a back-up for Delhomme than relying on him to be my starter so he is simply an unproven quantity.

 

It still strikes me in terms of what happened in the real world that TD picking up Bledsoe in 2002 was a good move, He paid off for us on the field with a great performance in 2002 that in my mind merited his Pro Bowl nod (if you condemn him as a loser everywhere which runs counter to him making the SB and earning a ring in the SB later who would you have chosen for the 2002 Pro Bowl instead of him). Even moreso in terms of the realworld he paid off for the Bills and TD on the business side as he reignited a Flutie like excitement about football here after a 3-13 season.

 

There were definite downsides to his game even early on, but even with BB undressing him twice in 2002 we improved to an 8-8 record which was the second biggest turnaround by a team in NFL history and NE failed to make the playoffs after their SB win struggling under the accelerated cap hit of trading away Bledsoe. I think TD clearly got the better of the deal for the 2002 season over Belichick,

 

Nevertheless, Bledsoe's horrible play last year mandated cutting our loses by cutting him and looking elsewhere last off-season. i was willing to believe the experts and the NFL pundits in resigning him once he areed to a cap friendly deal, but even me as an outsider recognized that his poor play last year called for a solid plan B to be in place for the Bills in case Bledsoe's play continued to suck and the unproven Brown and rookie Losman were never those Plan Bs even before their injuries.

 

Like most voters I do not accept that Bledsoe was always a loser or that he has always been a god. TD made a great move to get him (particularly when he got the 1st round pick back by turning nothing into something for Peerless) but he failed big time in not simply cutting him and our losses and failed utterly in not getting a good plan B for Bledsoe once he resigned him to a cap friendly deal.

[ASHVLLBILLSFAN]

blah blah blah

[Fixxxer]

Back then he was the most overrated QB in the league. He wasn't a QB that I would worry about when we faced the Patsies.

TD panicked and went for a name.

 

With the state of the Bills Oline back then we should have signed Jeff Blake and build the team from there.

[Buftex]

I will say, I was excited about the Bills obtaining Bledsoe. I admit he never struck a ton of fear in me when the Bills played the Pats, but, it was exciting to get a young, very productinve vetran QB. I will still pull for him as long as he is our QB. I think he is a terrific guy, and I would love to see him do well....

 

However, I will say, at the time we were rumoured to be interested in Bledsoe, I posted here, a number of times that Bledsoe would never be a Bill (I assumed the Pats would never trade him to Buffalo) and that we should sign Jeff Blake, asap, as we had talked with him, as had a number of other teams, but he was sort of in limbo. I reasoned that he would be a good short term (as in 1 or 2 year) solution to our QB situation while we groomed a younger drafted QB. I also reasoned that we wouldn't have to committ a ton of salary cap to Blake, and hey, he might not turn out to be too bad for a rebuilding team. I was absolutely blasted by a number of people on this board (many of the neo-cons). The one statement I made that turned out to be more prohetic than I ever could have imagined, is that IMO, Bledsoe was Rob Johnson without wheels...vindication rocks!

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

It should have been a red flag that the Pats would trade Drew to a division opponent.  They had zero respect for his skills, and you can see exactly why now.  Tom Donahoe must own a lot of time shares, swamp land, and 10% of the Brooklyn Bridge by now.

 

PTR

57125[/snapback]

 

 

I disagree, trading Bledsoe ended up being as damaging for NE as for the Bills during the time-period mandated by the trade.

 

2002 was a big plus for us as we upgraded from RJ/AVP steering this team to 3-13 while Drew steeered the squad to 8-8. This on the field improvement was one of the biggest turnarounds in NFL history and Bledsoe's play was a big part of this turnaround (though far from all of it) There were negatives to his game such as BB undressing him bigtime because he knew Bledsoe and his weaknesses so well. However, even with the two losses to NE finishing at 8-8 was a huge turnaround for the Bills and much more can't be expected. From NE's perspective they clearly made the correct move going with Brady over Bledsoe, however, this does not eradicate the negative effect of having to dump Bledsoe as his accelerated cap hit can really be said to be a big part of NE going from being an SB winner to missing the playoffs the next season. This trade was rediculously in TDs favo that year when comparing it to NEs production under BB.

 

2003 saw a huge turnaround in the results of this trade. However, the assessment is more about Bledsoe's sucky play for us than saying much about NE. They simply made the correct obvious choice going with the better younger QB and if they deserve much credit it is for taking the Bledsoe hit in one fell swoop the year before rather than simply marooning him on the bench in case they wanted him to play the same role as a back-up for Brady he played in a must win game for them in their 2001 SB run. the story here was the horrendous production outage by Bledsoe last year. Still on the whole this simply made his play a wash for the Bills (great in 2002 and sucky in 2003). The mistake was not looking elsewhere this off-season of if one must resign not having a credible plan B beyond Travis brown or a rookie QB.

 

The idea that BB raped the Bills is simply not borne out in the results of 2002 in the real world. The thought offered in another post that there was some economic disadvantage for the Bills in making this trade is false also as NE subsidized our having him at a curate salary for a starting QB in 2002 and 2003.

 

Even resigning him in 2004 was economically fine because his new deal is pretty cap friendly and even by cutting him after June 1, 2005 we can go elsewhere next season without a huge cap problem.

 

The problem is one of the Bills braintrust making a poor assessment if how much he had left this year and not having a credible plan B for him from Travis Brown and a rookie QB even before their injuries.

[KOKBILLS]

The idea that BB raped the Bills is simply not borne out in the results of 2002 in the real world.  The thought offered in another post that there was some economic disadvantage for the Bills in making this trade is false also as NE subsidized our having him at a curate salary for a starting QB in 2002 and 2003.

 

Even resigning him in 2004 was economically fine because his new deal is pretty cap friendly and even by cutting him after June 1, 2005 we can go elsewhere next season without a huge cap problem.

 

The problem is one of the Bills braintrust making a poor assessment if how much he had left this year and not having a credible plan B for him from Travis Brown and a rookie QB even before their injuries.

58181[/snapback]

 

 

I definitely agree that not having a viable #2 is killing the Bills now, but if in fact the Bills made a poor assessment on how much Drew had left, then I think the major error was resigning him at all. I mean, it was a golden opportunity with ZERO Cap ramifications, and the Bills were going to Draft a QB regardless. While waiving Drew after June 1st 2005 may not hurt the Bills much Cap wise, what they paid him this year and what it will cost to cut him next year could have brought in a guy like Volek to start plus a player or two. I guess what I'm saying is, what exactly is Drew doing that a QB like Volek could not do for a lot less cash? If we would be going to the Back-up anyway, then the decision to keep Drew at any price was unadvised in my opinion...

 

Moot point now...But I think it's clear this Roster could have used that extra cash if only to improve the overall talent...