Cowchips said:
First, I agree that Favre is better.
As for Bledsoe being "average at best", with 3 more "average" 20 touchdown seasons Bledsoe will be fourth on the all time list for passing touchdowns in what is really only 15 seasons. That puts him behind only Marino, Favre and Tarkenton. I'd consider that something more than "average at best"
Perhaps you should research before you type ludicrous statements.
do you folks intentionally not pay attention so it has to be repeated to you time and time again
taken from a article so it is just a tad dated but still hold true...
http://www.eagletribune.com/news/stories/20050327/SP_004.htm
Among quarterbacks that have thrown for 10,000 or more yards (which means they were starters for at least three full seasons), Bledsoe ranks about 120th all-time, behind Jeff George, Trent Dilfer and Jay Schroeder, averaging 180.1 yards per touchdown.
Bledsoe has never thrown for 30 touchdowns in a season. His best, 28 in 1997 and 27 in 1996, were the closest. In fact, since the 1997 season, which was eight years ago, Bledsoe has averaged only 18.5 TDs per season,
which puts him in the bottom third of quarterbacks of that time span.
Now let's look at the most important statistic of all for a quarterback -- victories. Bledsoe is even a bigger loser here.
Bledsoe is 89-88 as a starter, including playoffs.
Breaking down that even further hurts him even more. Over his career, he has played against 39 teams that finished the season at 10-5-1 or better (we call those very good teams, winning twice as much as you lose).
Bledsoe for his career is -- please hide this from the children -- 5-34.
That's right. He has guided his teams to a five wins in 39 games against the cream of the crop.
The problem with what Dallas is getting is that record worsened when Bledsoe went to Buffalo. He was 4-21 as a Patriot against very good teams. He was 1-13 as Bill.
Yikes. That is believed to be the worst winning percentage against very good teams for every quarterback that threw for 20,000 yards or more. WORST EVER.
Now the key ingredient: Despite Bledsoe's not-so-wonderful career, he was the highest paid player in the history of the NFL. Not until recently did Brett Favre pass him in that category. The only difference is that Favre won a Super Bowl and three MVP awards.
I will add that he has finished last or next to last in his division as a starter 9 out of 12 or 10 out of 13 times I don't remember right now which it was...
here is another article
http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/Article.php?Page=61
Bledsoe: An NFL never-was Cold, Hard Football Facts for October 4, 2004
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It’s a testament to Drew Bledsoe’s character that so many New England fans still respect him. His arrival in New England in 1993, along with that of Bill Parcells, helped mark a change in fortunes for a franchise that had been among the most inept in NFL history. [/FONT]
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New Englanders also admire Bledsoe’s toughness, dignity, accountability and, of course, his 30.06 rifle of an arm. His farewell, full-page advertisement in Boston newspapers when he departed for Buffalo in 2002 was among the classiest acts ever by a Boston-area athlete.[/FONT]
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Bledsoe was so respected in New England that his replacement, Tom Brady, needed to win not one but two Super Bowl MVP awards before many Patriots fans finally admitted that keeping Brady over Bledsoe was the right thing to do.[/FONT]
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The Cold, Hard Football Facts admire the respect accorded Bledsoe. But they’re not slaves to misty-eyed public sentiment, and they certainly don’t attempt to swim against a torrent of historical data buoyed only by a skimpy life vest called respect.[/FONT]
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“The Truth Hurts,” say the Cold, Hard Football Facts, the truth is this: Bledsoe does not need a better line, another receiver, a top running game, or a different offensive coordinator. And he’s certainly not in the twilight of a glorious career that seems to be spiraling hopelessly downward in Buffalo. The truth is that Bledsoe is not an NFL has-been. The truth is that Bledsoe is an NFL never-was. He’s an NFL overall No. 1 draft pick who has never lived up to expectations. [/FONT]
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Here then is the execution the Drew Bledsoe legacy, courtesy of an impassive black-cloaked hangman called the Cold, Hard Football Facts:[/FONT]
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* Heading into the 2004 season, Bledsoe has posted a single-season passer rating of more than 80 just four times in 11 years. (Tom Brady has posted an 80-plus passer rating three times in three seasons.)[/FONT]
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* Bledsoe’s career passer rating of 76.8 ranks 18th among active quarterbacks with a 1,500 career attempts. (Brady’s career passer rating of 86.4 ranks puts him at a tie for ninth all time with Dan Marino.)[/FONT]
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* Bledsoe has led the league in pass attempts three times, completions twice, and passing yards just once. He’s never finished better than third in touchdown passes. (Brady has never led the league in pass attempts, completions or passing yards, but has already led the league once in touchdown passes.)[/FONT]
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* Bledsoe has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns in five of 11 seasons. (Brady has never thrown more interceptions than touchdowns over the course of a season and has a nearly 2 to1 touchdown to interception ratio in his career.)[/FONT]
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* Despite his reputation as a strong-armed gunslinger, Bledsoe has a career average of just 6.6 yards per pass attempt. (“Dink and dunk” passer Brady averages 6.7 yards per attempt in his career.)[/FONT]
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* Bledsoe has completed just 57.1 percent of the passes in his career, with a single-season best of 61.5 percent in 2002. (Brady’s career completion percentage is 61.9).[/FONT]
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* Bledsoe’s numbers in seven career postseasons games are dreadful: 129 for 252, 1,335 yards, 6 TDs, 12 INTs, and passer rating of 54.9 that makes even fraud Peyton Manning’s postseason performances look respectable.[/FONT]
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* In his one Super Bowl appearance, Bledsoe posted a line of 25 for 48 (52.1 percent), 253 yards, 2 TDs, 4 INTs, and a 46.6 passer rating. He lost that game, 35-21. In two Super Bowl appearances, Brady has posted a line of 48 for 75 (64.0 percent), 499 yards, 4 TDs, 1 INT, and a 95.4 passer rating. He’s won both games.[/FONT]
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Drew Bledsoe was accorded elite quarterback status the day he walked into the NFL as an overall No. 1 draft pick in 1993. The Cold, Hard Football Facts believe it’s taken 11 years of mediocre play for NFL “pundits” to finally acknowledge that Bledsoe is in fact a mediocre quarterback.[/FONT]
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How do the Cold, Hard Football Facts know? Consider this one other fact: Bledsoe has looked painfully poor and immobile in his first two games of the 2004 season. He’s led the Buffalo offense to just 20 total points and the team to an 0-2 record. Yet if he keeps up his 86.3 passer rating so far this season, it will be the second best statistical year of his substandard career.[/FONT]
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http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/Article.php?Page=173
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Bledsoe kissed, dissed, dismissed Cold, Hard Football Facts for November 15, 2004
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The Cold, Hard Football Facts tossed dirt on the coffin of Drew Bledsoe’s career earlier this season. After a dreadful performance in Sunday’s 29-6 loss to New England the “pundits” are dancing on the grave.
Bledsoe was 8 of 19 for 76 yards, with three interceptions and an embarrassing 14.6 passer rating – a performance so poor that the passer rating calculator on football.com advises quarterbacks to “turn in your jersey.” Bledsoe was replaced in the fourth quarter by rookie quarterback J.P. Losman, who’s still recovering from a broken leg, while Buffalo’s only points came on a punt return. Even Bledsoe’s pass on a two-point conversion attempt fell incomplete.
The bury Bledsoe bandwagon hit the road moments after the game. Boston sportscaster Bob Neumeier, who has a reputation for bombast and verbosity, actually offered one of the pithiest comments: “Drew Bledsoe has no football left in him,” he said during the Patriots 5th Quarter postgame show.
NFL analyst and former quarterback Boomer Esiason said “It doesn’t look like there’s any juice left in the tank” on WEEI sports radio Monday morning.
Even Ron Borges of the Boston Globe, one of Bledsoe’s most ardent supporters, admitted in his Monday column that “the end came, for all intents and purposes, at 11:20 last night.”
The Buffalo Bills Web site www.twobillsdrive.com offers links to all the obituaries.
There is no getting around the fact that Bledsoe’s overrated career is coming to a sad, pitiful, inglorious end. After Sunday’s performance, Bledsoe’s passer rating for the season has dropped to 70.3, the second lowest number of his career. And as sad as that number is, it’s not that far off his average. Bledsoe’s career passer rating is just 76.5 and he has posted a passer rating of better than 78.0 just once in the last six seasons. He has thrown more than 20 touchdown passes just once over those same six years. It's not likely he'll reach that milestone this year, either.
More indicting than the passing stats are the performances of the teams on which Bledsoe has played. He's just 22-37 as a starting quarterback since the start of the 2000 season. He’s been on just one winning team in those five years – as the back-up quarterback for the Super Bowl champion 2001 Patriots. The last time Bledsoe quarterbacked a winning team was in the Pete Carroll era, when the 1998 Patriots finished the season 9-7.
After gleefully announcing the end of Bledsoe's career, Neumeier did try to backpedal by talking about quarterback's roll in building Gillette Stadium. It's an important part of a legacy that still endears Bledsoe to many longtime New England fans, who know how pitiful the Patriots were before his arrival.
Kevin Rousseau of PatsFan.com puts it best:
“Let me just say that (Bledsoe) does not deserve this fate. He is a decent man, a class act and a good quarterback at times. He could have easily divided the team during the 2001 season but he put his personal feelings aside for the good of the team and it brought the Patriots their first championship.”
It's not a bad legacy for a quarterback who’s career is over. But it's time to let go.
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or from the sporting news
The games don't match the names on this unit.(overrated football players)(includes other professional football news)(Column)
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http://www.highbeam.com/Aspx/GetPubLogo.aspx?pub=The+Sporting+News&type=MAGS
The Sporting News; 10/7/1996; Glauber, Bob
A list of 12 professional football players who do not deserve their superstar status is presented. The players include Larry Brown, Marshall Faulk,
Drew Bledsoe and David Williams.
They make the big bucks and carry the trig reputations. Their names and faces are plastered on billboards and featured in television commercials.
But sometimes, their on-field performance doesn't measure up to their contracts, and their reputations are bigger than their achievements.
