Alternate History: What if Mo Lewis never knocked out Bledsoe?!

[baalworship]

September 24, 2001:

It is the 4th quarter in a game between the NY Jets and the New England Patriots. The Pats are down by 7 and it is 3rd and 10. Drew Bledsoe drops back and rolls right. Seeing nobody open he runs toward the sideline as Mo Lewis is in pursuit. He throws the ball down the field.....incomplete.

December 30, 2002:

The Patriots announce the firing of Bill Belichick. After having no winning seasons in 3 years, Bill Belichick was fired. Belichick's teams went 5-11 in 2000, 8-8 in 2001, and 7-9 in 2002. Belichick had previously been fired at Cleveland with losing seasons in 4 out of 5 years. Owner Bob Kraft stated that while he liked Belichick as a coach, it was time to move in a new direction. There is speculation Kraft will lean towards an offensive minded coach that can fix Drew Bledsoe...

[Tatonka]

rofl.

[Mr. Miyagi]

...then we would've drafted Kyle Boller in the 2002 draft.

[STAMPY]

nah i think we would have drafted joey harrington

[Mr. Miyagi]

Originally posted by Mr. Miyagi
...then we would've drafted Kyle Boller in the 2002 draft.

Oops. Wrong year on my part. (Self-quote!)

Originally posted by BuffaloBillsSTAMPEDE
nah i think we would have drafted joey harrington

No, Detroit picked Joey 1 spot ahead of us. Carr and Harrington were already gone by then.

[Iehoshua]

There was talk we were interested in drafting Patrick Ramsey....

[Tatonka]

Originally posted by BuffaloBillsSTAMPEDE
nah i think we would have drafted joey harrington

td said he would have drafted harrington had detriot not taken him.. which would have been a mistake too.. harrington sucks.

[The_Philster]

Originally posted by Darth Buffalo
There was talk we were interested in drafting Patrick Ramsey....

I don't think anyone saw him as worth the #4 overall pick and Washington picked him up before we got a chance to in the second round.

[Ickybaluky]

Bledsoe would have been benched eventually if the team kept struggling. Brady was the darling of the coaching staff after the offseason, and they elevated him to backup despite Damon Huards' experience edge. The coaches loved Brady before he ever got in the lineup.

Mo Lewis basically sped the process up a whole lot.

[baalworship]

But the question is when. Would Belichick and Weis bench Bledsoe if the team went 8-8 after going 5-11 the year before? The point is, a freak injury played a major role in the Pats ascendancy.

We all agree that Belichick is a great coach and Brady is a clutch QB. The question remains, "Would Belichick still be the head coach of New England if Bledsoe was the QB?".

My answer was no. Bledsoe is a coach killer. The Pats had invested a lot of money into Drew Bledsoe in addition to making him the #1 overall pick in the draft. My guess is that Belichick would have been fired by the end of the 2002 season. Brady would be fighting for the starting job with a new draft pick or a FA and Belichick would be hired as a defensive coordinator for another team.

[BillsFever]

The Patriots would've won 3 straight Super Bowls, not 2 out of 3. They might've lost 5 games in that entire span.

When Brady gets 35,000 passing yards then we can talk.

[Pride]

Very interesting to think about. It's amazing how much the NFL can swing on 1 change.

[pats-were-right]

When Brady gets 35,000 passing yards then we can talk.

It won't be for a while because he'll never reach the season's record for ATTEMPTS like Bledsoe has (and what helped him reached that meaningless stat).

The unofficial word according to the Herald's beat writer is that if Bledsoe stunk the NEXT game (the game after he was injured) he would have been pulled, i.e., he was on a short leash.

[Ickybaluky]

I find it hard to believe that Bledsoe would have been benched that quick. As bad as he played in week 2 against the Jets when he was injured, he played pretty well in the season opener at Cincinnati. I think it would have taken more than 2 bad games to send him to the bench.

Likely, a change would have occured when the Pats playoff chances waned. The coaching staff loved Brady, but they would have given Bledsoe a chance to play himself out of the job, or the team out of playoff contention, before sitting him.

[BillsFever]

Originally posted by pats-were-right
It won't be for a while because he'll never reach the season's record for ATTEMPTS like Bledsoe has (and what helped him reached that meaningless stat).

The unofficial word according to the Herald's beat writer is that if Bledsoe stunk the NEXT game (the game after he was injured) he would have been pulled, i.e., he was on a short leash.

I was being sarcastic.