If the Pats had any guts they would have traded Brady

[Judge]

What do y'all think?

It's pretty clear to even a casual fan that Drew's talent far surpasses Tom Brady. The Patriots toned down their offense and played close to the vest with Brady last year, and were successful. Brady's trade value would never have been higher coming off the Super Bowl performance.

The real gutsy move for the Patriots would have been to trade Brady. I'm pretty sure Donahoe WOULD NOT have been in the market for Brady, but I'd bet a team would have been interested in giving up a 2nd or 3rd round draft pick for him, which would have allowed Bledsoe to remain the franchise in New England.

Oh well- our gain!

[Earthquake Enyart]

This is just plain silly. Bledsoe started slow, the Pats looked like crap, then Brady comes in and leads them to the super bowl. Drew looked washed up, and he had the big contract. Drew was the one who had to go.

The Pats this year look like the Pats of the last couple of years with Drew. The problem is not Brady.

What I don't get is I look around and can see many teams that must be kicking themselves for not trying to get Drew:

Pittsburgh, Dallas, Miami, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Giants, Chicago, Carolina, to name a few.

[Judge]

What a ridiculous reply.

Bledsoe's in a much more elite class of QB's than Brady is. I don't think anyone in his right mind would argue that Brady beat Bledsoe out for the starting job last year. Brady played well given his limitations, but with Bledsoe on the roster with a long-term contract in place and a clean bill of health, Bledsoe would have been the better long-term choice, and the Pats could have gotten decent value for a guy who was the posterboy for the league after his drive to win the Super Bowl.

Heckuva drive, but that doesn't make him the right choice..

Bledsoe's costing New England $5 mil to its cap this year, too, while Brady got the big salary increase despite having been under contract for this season.

[vabillsfan]

Nope Judge, you got it wrong. The young cheaper guys comes in, leads them to the playoffs, wins the SB mvp. Drew was slowing down, looked old, was hurt and was expensive. What do you do, dump the SB MVP? You know better than that - no GM in their right mind would do so. Hell, even our Bills did it to some extent - we kept the younger guy with more potential in the earlier part of his career (RJ) over the older on the downside guy (DF) (NOT THAT THERE IS REALLY ANY COMPARISON).

Pats did the only thing they really could have - and made their mistake in giving Drew to us. Their stupidity is our gain!

[Judge]

Conventional wisdom would agree with you, VA. I agree with your logic.

I'm just suggesting that a gutsy GM move would have been to analyze what these guys really have to offer as starting QB's in this league, and who's better suited to help the team win again.

Bledsoe is not old- 30, and had a clean bill of health. He's an established vet, with a rocket arm.

Brady is a much more limited talent.

The price isn't much different, now that Brady got his contract extension and bonus.

I understand what you're saying, but what a gutsy move that would have been by New Englanf to move the Super Bowl MVP!

[vabillsfan]

"Things that make you go hmmmm......" !!!!

[mybills]

Why would they trade him when his stats were looking like Drews better years in NE? That's what made BB decide to keep him, not the SB or MVP. That and his youth.

[Buffarama]

You can't cut a QB that lead you to a Super Bowl, and a late game winning drive at that.
Drew had to go.
Consider it fate, and the Bills have profited from it.

[Judge]

Originally posted by Buffarama
You can't cut a QB that lead you to a Super Bowl, and a late game winning drive at that.
Drew had to go.
Consider it fate, and the Bills have profited from it.

True, but it was also a gamble that Brady wasn't a flash-in-the-pan.

I was in favor of starting Drew in the Super Bowl. Who knows how that would have turned out. Anyways, I just wanted to throw the idea out there for comment!

[Lori]

Originally posted by mybills
Why would they trade him when his stats were looking like Drews better years in NE? That's what made BB decide to keep him, not the SB or MVP. That and his youth.

Brady started the final 14 games last year, and threw for 2843 yds/18 TD/12 INT. In two games against Buffalo, he had a combined 34-56, 344 yds, 1 TD, 2 INT, and 12 sacks. In their last 8 regular-season games, he threw 8 TD passes and 8 INTs, and he had exactly 1 300-yard game all season. Over a 16-game season, his numbers project to:
302-472, 3249 yards, 20 TDs, 14 INTs.

By comparision: Bledsoe's "better years" look something like this:
1996: 373-623, 4086 yards, 27 TDs, 15 INTs, 4 300-yd games.
1997: 314-522, 3706 yards, 28 TDs, 15 INTs, 3 300-yd games.
1998: 263-481, 3633 yards, 20 TDs, 14 INTs, 4 300-yd games.
(And before you wonder about the dropoff there, 1998 is the year Bledsoe missed two games and played in three others despite having a compound fracture of the index finger on his throwing hand. The sono***un beat the Bills that year with his freakin' finger taped together.)

Brady is younger, true. And last year, Brady had an OK running game (first time the Pats' rushing attack finished in the top half of the league since 1995). And he had a defense that not only gave up fewer points than any Patriots team Drew played on, but scored 5 TDs of its own. Compare that to Drew's last couple of years in NE, when Petey Carroll was running the "Drew, save us!" offense.

To me, Tom Brady = Jeff Hostetler. Hoss has a ring, he had a decent career, but he'll never get into Canton without a ticket. Belichick made the decision he had to, I suppose, but Pats fans had better hope Brady doesn't turn out to be the next Vince Ferragamo instead of the next Brett Favre.

[Judge]

Outstanding point, Lori!

That's exactly how I see it, although you put it best!

[lordofgun]

Originally posted by Lori


Brady started the final 14 games last year, and threw for 2843 yds/18 TD/12 INT. In two games against Buffalo, he had a combined 34-56, 344 yds, 1 TD, 2 INT, and 12 sacks. In their last 8 regular-season games, he threw 8 TD passes and 8 INTs, and he had exactly 1 300-yard game all season. Over a 16-game season, his numbers project to:
302-472, 3249 yards, 20 TDs, 14 INTs.

By comparision: Bledsoe's "better years" look something like this:
1996: 373-623, 4086 yards, 27 TDs, 15 INTs, 4 300-yd games.
1997: 314-522, 3706 yards, 28 TDs, 15 INTs, 3 300-yd games.
1998: 263-481, 3633 yards, 20 TDs, 14 INTs, 4 300-yd games.
(And before you wonder about the dropoff there, 1998 is the year Bledsoe missed two games and played in three others despite having a compound fracture of the index finger on his throwing hand. The sono***un beat the Bills that year with his freakin' finger taped together.)

Brady is younger, true. And last year, Brady had an OK running game (first time the Pats' rushing attack finished in the top half of the league since 1995). And he had a defense that not only gave up fewer points than any Patriots team Drew played on, but scored 5 TDs of its own. Compare that to Drew's last couple of years in NE, when Petey Carroll was running the "Drew, save us!" offense.

To me, Tom Brady = Jeff Hostetler. Hoss has a ring, he had a decent career, but he'll never get into Canton without a ticket. Belichick made the decision he had to, I suppose, but Pats fans had better hope Brady doesn't turn out to be the next Vince Ferragamo instead of the next Brett Favre.

Couldn't agree more Lori! Post of the week right there!

[BillsOwnAll]

when u look at last year brady wasnt that great he was ok but it was mostly the team that was good not brady and the fans didnt look at it that way i mean the QB ISNT EVERYTHING there imporant but u need a whole team to win the SB

[Kelly The Dog]

Well put, Lori, as usual. But what I don't think we're thinking about here is Belichik. He's a defensive coach. He had just seen the Ravens win the Bowl with a stifling defense and a serviceable quarterback and offense. The obvious and EASY thing would have been to go back to Bledsoe after the return from injury and/or after the Championship game that Bledsoe helped win. Especially since Brady had clearly been average. But look what BB did. Each time he immediately stated that Brady would be his man. This is BEFORE he knew they would go on a ten game win streak and BEFORE Brady was the Super Bowl winner and MVP. He obviously witnessed Brady in all practices and simply decided that being a super-genius that he is, a workable, serviceable QB was the better move for his team. That all makes sense from BB's POV. He clearly ALWAYS thought that Brady was the best guy for the Pats. And that was further proven by the unnecessary huge contract that they offered him and signed him to before this season started.

That said, what doesn't make any sense to me is why did they suddenly change the offense to a pass-happy scheme (except for the fact that Antowan didnt come to play as usual) and why they gave Brady that huge contract when they didnt have to. They could easily have waited until halfway through the season to see if he was a one year wonder or not. He certainly was NOT going to turn down that contract if they offered it to him in week 9 intstead of week one.

[John from Hemet]

This is my opinion....

I am a big believer in fate.....

- Fate is what caused me to leave high school to take care of my grandparents....

- Fate is what caused me to go back to high school

- Fate is why I made it as a walk on at a Division III college program

- Fate is what caused me to tear ligiments in my knee forceing my career to be over

- Fate took me to the Air Force next

- Fate put me and my wife together

AND FATE IS WHAT BROUGHT DREW BLEDSOE TO THE BILLS. He was meant to come here and help us win a Super Bowl

When I look at it in those terms...it becomes very simple to me.

[BlackJohn]

I think the mistake bellicheck made was not giving drew his job back once he was healthy. At that point brady had had a few good games and some stinkers too. But one thing was also clear about the team, that the quarterback was never the difference on that team. They won by being the most physical team in the league, running the ball, and playing great redzone and 3rd down defense. But instead bellicheck decided to punch drews ticket out of town.

The irony of all this is, which no noe has mentioned, is that when Carroll was fired, Bledsoe wanted Kraft to get Bellicheck as the coach of the team.

Who would of thought he would be the one to send him packing?

here's a good article 9YOU MAY HAVE READ IT BEFORE) about bledsoe/brady when bledsoe was ready to come back.

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/halloran/011128.html

[mybills]

I stand corrected Lori, perhaps I shouldn't have said "best years", maybe it was the previous year he was talking about. I'd have to search some archives for the article where BB gave his reasons for the decision. The two that I mentioned..similar stats and age. I'll try to find it just for the hell of it, and it was before Brady played 16 games so you know it's an old article.

[BADTHINGSMAN]

Miami- They have Fiedler, they believe in him and feel they can with him. Plus they coudnt afford Bledsoe.

Cincinnati- Bledsoe didnt want to go there.

Giants- Kerri Collins, putting up ok numbers last year. Struggling this year. Couldnt afford him.

Carolina- If Bledsoe wouldnt go to Cincinnati, he sure wouldnt go here.

Baltimore- Simply couldnt afford him.

Pittsburgh- Kordell played great last year, they thought he could be that good again this year.

Dallas- Quincy Carter showed a little improvement last year. Possibly couldnt afford him either.

Buffalo- Perfect fit for him. Fans and Players want him here. He wanted to be here after he met the Players and Staff. And now he loves it here.

[colin]

Don't post that crap around here. Name calling and baseless smack are all that we allow.

You also have to eleminate long runs, and if a quarter back gets a lot of his TDs in a few games, he is crap. Even if the team just runs it in from the 2.