Patriots: revisiting the Drew Bledsoe trade with Bills that paved way for Tom Brady

Revisiting the New England Patriots trading Drew Bledsoe to the Buffalo Bills.

Some fans forget that Tom Brady’s path to winning the starting quarterback job for the Patriots was once extremely cloudy. After all, he was a sixth-round pick (No. 199 overall) of the 2020 NFL Draft and and the franchise didn’t really have high hopes for him.

At the time, New England was already deploying Drew Bledsoe, who had started for them each year dating back to the 1993 season.

However, a hit that Bledsoe took by New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis in 2001 changed the complexion of the Patriots organization forever. Brady took over for the injured veteran the rest of the way and led them to a Super Bow title — the very first of their 20-year dynasty.

Of course, this saw TB12 nab the starting job and ultimately prompted New England to unload Bledsoe in a trade with the Buffalo Bills.

In return, the Patriots received Buffalo’s first-round pick in 2003, which turned into defensive end Ty Warren. The former Texas A&M star never made a Pro Bowl, but was a consistent outlet of production for New England. In eight seasons with the franchise, he posted 376 tackles, 20.5 sacks, 41 QB hits, 37 tackles for loss, and seven forced fumbles.

In sum, Warren was an integral component on two Super Bowl-winning Patriots teams.

Again, the real story here is that this trade paved the way for Brady, who went on to win another five championships and three MVP awards. In addition, he’s been named to 14 Pro Bowls and is the consensus greatest football player of all time.

This isn’t to say that Bledsoe played poorly for the Bills, but he was still a far cry from the four-time Pro Bowler he was with New England. The former No. 1 overall pick spent three seasons in Buffalo, across which he completed 59.1% of his passes for 10,151 yards and 55 touchdowns compared to 43 interceptions.

The Bills likely thought they were getting a steal in acquiring Bledsoe for a first-rounder. Little did they know, however, that they essentially handed the keys of the Patriots organization to a future first ballot Hall of Famer.