You mean like Babe Parilli, Jim Plunkett, and Steve Grogan?
Incidentally, Curtis Martin was the best player on the Patriots when he was on the team, not Drew Bledsoe.
And Grogan was far from the best player when he was on the team. The Patriots were arguably the most talented team in the NFL in those days, and had one of the most dominant running attacks I have ever seen.
At the tail end of that era, we learned that all that team needed to win was a QB who simply managed the game and avoided costly mistakes.
Steve Grogan was a gutty, exciting player. But, I'll always maintain that he is among the most overrated players in our local sports history. An absolutely horrible performer in "big" games...with all that talent surrounding him, the team did not win a single playoff game with Grogan at QB. And, if I'm not mistaken, I believe they even lost every MNF game he played in as well.
I have to think that anyone who puts Grogan in the same category as Bledsoe is guilty of thinking with his heart instead of his head.
Yes, Grogan was a far better scrambler than Bledsoe. And, when it came to guts and grit, I'd rate them dead even.
In every single other category, Bledsoe was far superior to Grogan, and the numbers bear that out. More importantly, the team had far more success, with less overall talent, during Bledsoe's tenure. Of course, playing in the salary cap era, Bledsoe's salary was at least partially responsible for the level of talent surrounding him.
Drew's biggest fault was that he never seemed to live up to what we thought he should be. In his early years we saw that incredible gun of an arm;and we saw his faults....which we attributed to inexperience. We assumed that he would learn to read defenses better, improve his pocket awareness, get rid of the ball quicker, and generally make better decisions. And, for some reason, he just never improved all that much in those areas.
There was a period, early in his career, where I still believe he carried the team on his arm. In 1994, his second season. Drew seemed to have regressed from his promising rookie form, as the Pats started 3-6; and it looked like it was going to be 3-7 as the Pats trailed the vikings 20-3 at half time.
Then, Drew caught fire. He completed 45(!!!) passes that day and the Pats came back to win 26-20 in OT. They then went on to win the rest of their regular season games and made the playoffs.
When it came to clutch play, Drew had his moments. The fog bomb to Terry Glen has to rate as one of the most memorable PIWTBWNIs (Plays In Which Tom Brady was Not Involved) in Pats history.
Then there were the 2 games in a row in 1998 that Bledsoe threw the winning TD in the final 30 seconds....with a broken finger...to get the team into the playoffs for the third straight season.
And there were the frustrating times that Drew was not able to rise to the occasion, such as the 1997 playoff game against the Steelers.
Until Tom Brady came along, Drew was the best QB and one of the best players in the team's history. He and Bill Parcells share the credit for bringing the team to its most successful era prior to the Brady/Belichick era.
There should be absolutely no question that Drew Bledsoe deserves to be honored by the Patriots. And, while he fell short of the Hall of Fame career that he seemed destined for in his early days, he does belong in the Patriots Hall of Fame.
