Thursday, April 25, 2013

Day 25: Oooh, It's Drafty in Here.

Today is the day that every really sucky professional football team looks forward to—the first day of the NFL draft. It's that day when that team that finished 2-14 the previous season gets that warm, fuzzy feeling about signing a guy that's going to be the answer to their prayers, a solution to all their problems.

The last time the New England Patriots picked first was exactly 20 years ago, in the 1993 draft. You might remember the young quarterback they drafted #1—a junior from Washington State named Drew Bledsoe. It was on the heels of a horrific 1992 season where they joined the Seattle Seahawks as the worst teams in the NFL with a 2-14 record. Bledsoe's first season they did improve to 5-11, but it wasn't until they topped that AFC East in 1996 with an 11-5 record that Bledsoe was heralded as true leader. That was the best season he would have in New England before losing the starting job to Tom Brady.

Drew went on to have a respectable career with the Patriots. In 123 games started, he was 63-60 with a 56.3 completion percentage and 29,657 total passing yards. He threw 166 touchdowns and 138 interceptions. Bledsoe earned four trips to the Pro Bowl in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2002 and made it to the Super Bowl in 1996 where he was crushed by the Green Bay Packers. Just goes to show you exactly what kind of QB Tom Brady is...

I'm okay with the Patriots not having a #1 pick in the last two decades. It just means they didn't suck the most.

With the first pick of the 2013 NFL draft, the Kansas City Chiefs select Eric Fisher, OT, Central Michigan.

And so it begins.

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