The Cowboys went through this with Dak Prescott last year; the Vikings with Case Keenum this year. SF with Colin Kaepernick a few years ago. Hell, 2000 wasn't that last time Bledsoe would lose his job to injury; Romo replaced him five years later in Dallas. Jeff Hostetler took Phil Simms' job after leading the Giants to a Super Bowl victory, one Belichick was part of. This is a cruel business and established players lose gigs due to injury all the time.
Sure, but equally true if not more so for head coaches. Tons of smart coaches have failed because they had lousy quarterbacks (and owners) - like Belichick did in Cleveland. At least they get to pick their spots, I guess.
Absolutely. But at the same time, what a break for Belichick! Because instead of shackled to a declining, overpaid Bledsoe (and, harmfully, a beloved but overrated QB in the same vein as Eli this year or Bernie Kosar when Belichick was in Cleveland), his sixth-round pick turns out to be a far superior scheme fit, a far superior personality fit, plays under a dirt cheap rookie contract, and allows BB to unload Bledsoe for a first-round pick (from a division rival, no less). Oh, and when he surrounds that sixth-round pick with top-tier receiving weapons, he develops into a perennial MVP candidate who can carry the team when the defensive stars get old, but somehow still takes less than market contracts, and also continues to excel well past expected human decline ... let's face it, Belichick struck gold, too. Brady is basically a real-life superhero.
And Belichick certainly deserves some credit for picking Brady, and for keeping four QBs, and he probably deserves some credit for Brady's development (and for picking assistants like Weis and McDaniels who helped with Brady's development). But the bulk of credit for Brady's greatness has to go to Brady.
OK, that's fair. But if the Patriots didn't draft him, at worst he was a priority UDFA. Five more QBs were drafted after Brady, and the Patriots decided to take him in the sixth even though a) they didn't need a QB and b) they had three seventh round picks. Moreover, they did not take a chance on sneaking Brady through waivers to the Practice Squad even though they had three guys ahead of him on the depth chart. There was interest in Brady - or at least Belichick thought there was.
Interestingly, the Patriots traded their first seventh rounder to Brady's hometown 49ers ... who used it on Tim Rattay, the other QB the Patriots considered with 199. Rattay did wind up starting 18 games for SF, so one of the plausible alternate realities is Brady ultimately beating out Giovanni Carmazzi and getting to play for his hometown team ... (or maybe Bill Walsh decides Brady is too unathletic to run his offense)