Drew Bledsoe

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Drew Bledsoe
Drew Bledsoe during his tenure with the Cowboys.
Position(s): Quarterback	Jersey #(s): 11
Born: February 14, 1972 (1972-02-14) (age 37) 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
4× Pro Bowl selection (1994, 1996, 1997, 2002) 2× All-Pro selection (1994, 1996) Super Bowl champion (XXXVI) Other Accomplishments

Drew McQueen Bledsoe^[1] (born February 14, 1972) is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League, best known as the starting quarterback for the New England Patriots from 1993-2001. 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.^[2]

[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 Washington State University 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.^[3]

[edit] NFL career

[edit] New England Patriots: 1993–2001

Bledsoe was drafted first overall in the 1993 draft by the New England Patriots. Bledsoe started for the Patriots in his rookie season, as the Patriots improved from two to five wins. On November 13, 1994 the Patriots had won just three of their first nine games, and were losing 20-3 to the Minnesota Vikings at half-time. 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).^[4] In remaining undefeated throughout the succeeding games, the Patriots earned their first postseason appearance in eight years.^[5]. Bledsoe set an NFL record pass attempts (691), became the second NFL quarterback to complete 400 or more passes in a season (400), and led the NFL in passing yards (4555). ^[6]

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, two touchdowns, and four interceptions. During the 1997 season, Bledsoe helped the Patriots win five of their final seven 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. Bledsoe built a career-high 87.7 passer rating, passed for the second most yards in the NFL, and earned his third Pro Bowl invitation. The following year he became the first NFL quarterback to complete game-winning touchdown passes in the final 30 seconds of two consecutive games.^[7] In so doing he propelled New England into the postseason for the third straight year. He completed these come-from-behind efforts while playing with a broken index finger on his throwing hand, an injury that would later sideline him for the postseason.

Bledsoe started the 1999 season very strongly, with 13 touchdowns and only four interceptions as the Patriots held a 6–2 mid-season record. However, Bledsoe subsequently threw only six touchdowns against 17 interceptions as the team faltered to an 8–8 record. The slide continued into 2000's 5-11 season. While Bledsoe threw a career low 13 interceptions that year, he was sacked 45 times.

Nonetheless, in March 2001, Bledsoe was signed to a then-record ten-year, $103 million contract.^[8] 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 while running upright to make it out of bounds. Replacing Bledsoe at quarterback, soon-to-be All-Pro Tom Brady led the Patriots to an eventual Super Bowl championship. Though he never regained his starting role, Bledsoe nevertheless proved integral to his team's playoff run when he replaced a hobbled Brady in the AFC Championship Game against Pittsburgh. Bledsoe, starting from the Steelers 40 yard line, capped a scoring drive with an 11 yard touchdown pass to David Patten to seal a 24-17 victory. In gaining the conference title Bledsoe completed 10 of 21 passes for 102 yards and a touchdown against no interceptions. ^[9]

Appreciative of his lengthy tenure with the team and his role in securing their first league championship, Patriots fans cheered Bledsoe in each of his three returns to Foxborough, Massachusetts as a visiting player.

[edit] Buffalo Bills: 2002–2004

A change of scenery - by way of a trade^[10] - 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. ^[11]

[edit] Dallas Cowboys: 2005–2006

Bledsoe went on to sign with the Dallas Cowboys, where he was reunited with former coach Bill Parcells. 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.^[12] 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 April 11.^[2].

When Bledsoe retired in April 2007, he left fifth in NFL history in pass attempts (6,717) and completions (3,839), seventh in passing yards (44,611), and 13th in touchdown passes (251).

[edit] Personal life

Drew and wife Maura Healy live in Bend, Oregon and 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.^[13]

Since his retirement in 2007, 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.^[13]

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Career stats

[edit] Post-season records and statistics

• 4-3 record in post-season
• 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
• 2-0 in AFC Championship games (in last Patriots appearance came off bench for injured Brady to win at Pittsburgh January 2002)
• 1 Super Bowl Championship (2001, New England Patriots)

[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
• He passed for 3,291 yards in 2000, his seventh consecutive season with at least 3,000 yards passing.
• Bledsoe was durable during his career, playing in 126 of his first 132 games since entering the league in 1993, and never missing a start after leaving NE until benched in 2006.
• In 2002, his first season in Buffalo, he set single season records for yards, attempts, completions on an offense that had 7 other franchise records.
• 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.^[14] According to Don Banks of Sports Illustrated, Bledsoe's large career totals "reveal more about his longevity than about his excellence".^[15] However, given that he is 5th in attempts and also 5th in completions, along with 7th in yards, his numbers were on par with the others in the top 10.

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). In his last playoff appearance he came off the bench for an injured Tom Brady to win at Pittsburgh (the #1 Defense in the NFL that season), he quickly went 3 for 3 with a TD while Brady had not thrown a TD pass in several games at that point. Bledsoe never lost an AFC Championship (2–0) or a home playoff game (3–0).

[edit] See also

• List of NFL Quarterbacks who have passed for 400 or more yards
• List of 300-Yard Passing Games by NFL Quarterbacks
• List of NFL quarterbacks who have posted a perfect passer rating

[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