Julian Edelman’s near disappearance over the last four games has been a talking point around the New England Patriots’ 2-4 start.
The 34-year-old got off to one of his hottest starts in his career, but he’s dwindled down to eight catches and 79 yards over the past four games. Cam Newton took a brunt of the blame and he’s owned up to the poor performances over these last few games, but it still didn’t excuse Edelman from having an absurd amount of dropped passes.
Fans gained more of an explanation to this poor play after it was announced on Thursday that Edelman had a knee procedure. The timetable for his return isn’t fully clear yet, but Bill Belichick believes his top receiver will be back this season.
“We’ll see how the return goes,” Belichick said. “I don’t think this is a season-ending situation, but we’ll see. I’m not a doctor. We’ll see how it goes here. Hopefully, he’ll be back. He’s worked awfully hard, and nobody’s more competitive than Julian is, so he’ll do everything he can to be back out there.
“We’ll just take it day by day, (follow) the process and see how it goes. Whatever opportunity that provides for somebody else and whoever that provides it for, then hopefully that player can take advantage of that opportunity and be productive. We’ll just have to see how that goes.”
Shockingly, Belichick continued to entertain the question.
“That’s really a medical question that I don’t feel qualified to answer,” Belichick continued. “I think medically, in consultation with the player and the medical staff, we always try to do what’s best. The player always tries to do what’s best. So whatever decisions are made, are made with those intentions. Whatever it ends up being, it ends up being. I don’t think we can control that.
“We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully, he’ll have a good recovery and be back better than where he was before the surgery. That’s the whole point of doing the surgery — that the situation will improve. So hopefully, it will improve.”
The Patriots play the Buffalo Bills this week without Edelman and likely N’Keal Harry (concussion).
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