Drew Bledsoe

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Drew Bledsoe
Bledsoe in pre-game stretches
Position(s): Quarterback	Jersey #(s): 11
Born: February 14, 1972 (1972-02-14) (age 36) Ellensburg, Washington
Career Information
Year(s): 1993–2006
NFL Draft: 1993 / Round: 1 / Pick: 1
College: Washington State
Professional Teams
New England Patriots (1993-2001) Buffalo Bills (2002-2004) Dallas Cowboys (2005-2006)
Career Stats
TD-INT	251-206
Yards	44,611
QB Rating	77.1
Stats at NFL.com
Career Highlights and Awards
4x Pro Bowl selection (1994, 1996, 1997, 2002) 2x All-Pro selection (1994, 1996) New England Patriots Career Passing Yards (29,657)

Drew McQueen Bledsoe^[1] (born February 14, 1972) is a former American football quarterback in the NFL, best known as the starting quarterback for the New England Patriots from 1993-2000. During the 1990s and early 2000s, he was perceived to be the face of the Patriots franchise. Bledsoe, an All-American for the Washington State Cougars and former #1 overall draft pick in the 1993 NFL Draft, announced his retirement from the sport on April 11, 2007.

[edit] High school years

Bledsoe attended Walla Walla High School in Walla Walla, Washington and was a letterman in football and basketball. In football, he was named a first team All-State selection by the Tacoma News Tribune.

[edit] College years

Bledsoe only stayed through his junior season at WSU but still managed to put together a record-setting career. In 28 starts he established WSU records in single-game passing yards (476), single-season pass completions (241), and single-season passing yards (3,246). Bledsoe was named Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year as a junior and entered the 1993 NFL Draft.^[2]

[edit] NFL career

[edit] New England Patriots: 1993-2001

Bledsoe was drafted 1st overall in the 1993 draft by the New England Patriots. Bledsoe started for the Patriots in his rookie season, as the Patriots improved from 2 wins to 5 wins. The 1994 season was arguably Bledsoe's best. On Nov. 13 the Patriots had won just 3 of their first 9 games and were down 20 to 3 at half time against the Minnesota Vikings. Bledsoe led a comeback victory in which the Patriots won 26-20 in overtime, as he set single game records in pass completions (45) and attempts (70).^[3] The Patriots did not lose a game the rest of the season and made their first postseason appearance in eight years.^[4]. Bledsoe set an NFL record pass attempts (691), became the second NFL quarterback to ever complete 400 or more passes in a season (400), and led the NFL in passing yards (4555).^[5]

During the 1996 season, the Patriots won the AFC championship against the Jacksonville Jaguars 20-6. This led to an appearance in Super Bowl XXXI, where they lost 35-21 against the Green Bay Packers, with Bledsoe completing 25 of 48 passes for 253 yards, 2 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. During the 1997 season, Bledsoe helped the Patriots win 5 of their final 7 games to once again qualify for the playoffs, the fourth time in eight years as a Patriots starter he would lead the team to a post-season run. The Patriots lost in the second round to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Despite this loss, Bledsoe had arguably his best season, with a career high 87.7 passer rating, 2nd most passing yards in the NFL, and was rewarded with his third Pro Bowl invitation. Bledsoe had another stellar season in 1998, becoming the first quarterback in NFL history to complete game-winning touchdown passes in the final 30 seconds of two consecutive games.^[6] He accomplished the feat with wins over the Miami Dolphins (11/23/98) and Buffalo Bills (11/29/98) and in doing so he propelled New England into the postseason for the third straight year. Remarkably, he completed these heroic come-from-behind efforts while playing with a broken index finger on his throwing hand. This injury would later sideline him for the postseason.

Bledsoe started the 1999 season very strong, with 13 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions as the Patriots held a 6-2 record halfway through the year. However, in the 2nd half, Bledsoe threw only 6 touchdowns and 17 interceptions as the team finished with an 8-8 record. The slide continued in 2000 with a 5-11 season. Bledsoe threw a career low 13 interceptions, but was also sacked 45 times.

In March 2001, Bledsoe was signed to a "then-record" ten-year, $103 million contract.^[7] Bledsoe did not, however, finish his career with the Patriots, nor even see the opening of the new Gillette Stadium. During the second game of the 2001 season, Bledsoe was hit by New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis as he ran upright trying to make it out of bounds. The injury gave Tom Brady a chance to take over at quarterback and Brady led the Patriots on a Super Bowl run. Bledsoe never regained his starting role. However, Bledsoe did play in the AFC Championship Game after Brady left the game with an ankle injury. Bledsoe, starting from the Steelers 40 yard line, led the Patriots on a scoring drive, capped by an 11 yard touchdown pass to David Patten. In the game, Bledsoe completed 10 of 21 passes for 102 yards and 1 touchdown, with no interceptions. The Patriots defeated the Steelers 24-17 and qualified for Super Bowl XXXVI.^[8]

He was cheered by Patriots fans in his three returns to Foxborough, Massachusetts as a visiting player.

[edit] Buffalo Bills: 2002-2004

A change of scenery to Bledsoe's former division rival Buffalo seemed to give him a bit of rejuvenation in 2002. He had one of his best seasons ever, passing for 4,359 yards and 24 touchdowns and making his fourth trip to the Pro Bowl. In Week 2 against Minnesota, Bledsoe set a team record with 463 yards passing in an overtime win. He continued his strong play in 2003 as the Bills began the year 2-0. However, a flurry of injuries stymied the Bills offense; they failed to score a touchdown in three consecutive games en route to a 6-10 season. In 2004, they fell one game short of making the playoffs; a late season winning streak went for naught when Bledsoe and the Bills performed poorly against the Pittsburgh Steelers backups in the season finale. The Bills decided to hand the reins to young J. P. Losman and Bledsoe was released in the offseason.

[edit] Dallas Cowboys: 2005-2006

In 2005, Bledsoe was reunited with former coach Bill Parcells in Dallas. During his tenure with the Cowboys, he threw for over 3000 yards in a season for the 9th time in his career, tying Warren Moon for fourth in NFL history. That season, Bledsoe led five 4th quarter/OT game-winning drives to keep the Cowboys’ playoff hopes alive until the final day of the season.^[9] Though the team ultimately failed to reach the playoffs, Bledsoe had led them to a 9-7 record, a vast improvement over the 6-10 mark that Vinny Testaverde had finished with in 2004.

However, in 2006, his second season with the Cowboys, Bledsoe's play became erratic, so much so that six games into the season he was replaced by Tony Romo. Shortly after the end of the 2006 season, Bledsoe was released by the Cowboys. Unwilling to be relegated to a backup position, Bledsoe announced his retirement from the NFL on February 25.

[edit] Personal life

Drew and wife Maura Healy have four children: sons Stuart McQueen, John Stack and Henry Healy, and daughter Healy Elizabeth. He coaches his sons', Stuart and John's, little league football team named the Patriots.^[10]

Since his retirement in 2006, Bledsoe has opened a vineyard, the Flying B Vineyard outside Walla Walla, Washington and owns a coffee roasting company as well. He also works with many philanthropic organizations.^[11]

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Career stats

[edit] Career totals

• 98-96 as a starter
• 6,717 passes attempted
• 3,839 passes completed (57.2 Completion percentage)
• 44,611 passing yards (6.64 yards/attempt)
• 251 passing touchdowns (0.037 TD/attempt)
• 10 rushing TDs
• 206 passes intercepted (0.031 INT/attempt)
• 258 Total Turn-overs
• 26.76 passing attempts per touchdown
• 32.60 passing attempts per interception
• 123 fumbles (56 lost)
• Ranked 180th (All-Time) in turning yards into points
• Ranked 5th in Completions and Attempts - 7th in Passing Yards and 13th in Touchdowns.

[edit] Post-season records and statistics

• 3-3 in the post-season as a starter (3-0 at home)
• 252 passes attempted
• 129 passes completed
• 51.1 Completion Percentage
• 54.9 QB Rating
• 1335 passing yards
• 6 passing touchdowns
• 12 passes intercepted
• 21 passing attempts per interception in the post-season
• 42 passing attempts per TD in the post-season
• 1 Super Bowl Championship (2001, New England Patriots - Did not play)

[edit] Accomplishments

From Patriots.com:

• His 4,452 pass attempts in his first eight seasons rank second to Brett Favre whose 4,456 attempts are the most by a quarterback during any eight-year period in NFL history
• Bledsoe currently owns the Patriots’ franchise career passing records for attempts, completions, yards, and touchdowns.
• He passed for 3,291 yards in 2000, his seventh consecutive season with at least 3,000 yards passing.
• Bledsoe had been durable throughout his first eight years with the Patriots, having played in 126 of 132 possible games since entering the league in 1993.
• In 1998, he directed the Patriots to the playoffs for the fourth time in six seasons.
• In 1994, he set Patriots franchise single-season passing records for attempts (691), completions (400) but only a 57.8 completion percentage and yards passing (4,555), just 6.59 yards per completion.
• In 1995, he set a franchise record by attempting 179 consecutive passes without an interception (10/23/95 to 11/26/95).
• At the age of 23, he became the youngest player in NFL history to surpass the 10,000-yard passing plateau when he connected with Ben Coates on a 6-yard completion just before the half vs. the Jets (12/10/95).
• Prior to 1994, the Patriot's single-season record for passing yards was 3,465 yards. Bledsoe eclipsed that mark six consecutive seasons.
• At the age of 22, he became the youngest quarterback in NFL history to play in the Pro Bowl.

From JT-SW.com:

• Has 33 career 4th quarter/OT game winning scores and holds the record for most TD passes in OT.

While Bledsoe's raw statistics are somewhat impressive, a frequent criticism is that they are based on volume (attempts, completions, yards) rather than efficiency (passer rating, TD-to-INT ratio, yards per attempt) proving only that he has thrown a great number of times, not that he has thrown well.^[12] According to Don Banks of Sports Illustrated, Bledsoe's large career totals "reveal more about his longevity than about his excellence".^[13]

Bledsoe's poor post-season statistics (see above) have also caused a good deal of criticism to be leveled against him, though his career playoff record of 3-3 is a better win-loss ratio for playoff games as of the end of the 2007 NFL Season than those of Dan Fouts, (3-4), Warren Moon, (3-7), or Dan Marino (8-10).

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official web site
• Drew Bledsoe at ESPN.com
• Pro-Football-Reference.com - career statistics.
• Humanitarian Bio
• Drew Bledsoe at The Internet Movie Database