Category: Julian Edelman

It has often been said that Bill Belichick is one of the most difficult coaches to play for. It’s also widely known that many players have a hard time adjusting to the strict culture that is held in New England.

The tough environment on players has even been linked to Rob Gronkowski’s desire to stay retired. Julian Edelman elaborated on this notion while speaking with Ian Rapoport on the ‘RapSheet + Friends’ podcast.

“Where I play, our coaching staff and some of the leaders, coach Belichick, hearing him and how he handles success,” Edelman said, transcribed by MassLive. “I’ve been there for 11 years, you learn from it and it’s applicable to your life. You get institutionalized, bro. You just do it.”

The Patriots will face the Philadelphia Eagles this week and lineman Lane Johnson has widely said that New England’s players don’t have fun. Kyle Van Noy and Duron Harmon shut that idea down after they won a Super Bowl, so it appears as if there are two ways to look at it. Players can get ‘institutionalized’ and reap the benefits, or they can play elsewhere and have a less demanding culture around them.

Edelman went on further to explain the turnover rate in the NFL and the difficulty for Patriots to get acclimated on a week-to-week basis.

“That’s everyone,” Edelman said. “Not the new guys, everyone. We’re such a gameplan team. Every week, it’s install and everyone’s got to learn it together. Then you go out and practice it hard and I think you get so caught up in that you almost forget about those outside things that are happening.”

Edelman has been in the league for 10 seasons and it took him four years to become an integral part of the system. He put in the work and continuously did his job — which led him to three Super Bowl wins and a Super Bowl MVP award.

Playing for Belichick may not be the easiest task, but Edelman is laying the blueprint on how to successfully do it.

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Julian Edelman seems to have a different No. 2 wideout every week. The New England Patriots have made no shortage of major transactions at receiver during the course of the 2019 season, whether it was drafting first-rounder N’Keal Harry, trading away Demaryius Thomas, signing and cutting Antonio Brown, trading for Mohamed Sanu and waiving Josh Gordon. Bill Belichick has been busy shaping his receiver depth chart.

Edelman met with reporter Ian Rapoport on a podcast for “Westwood One” and discussed the turnover, which Edelman admitted was at a higher volume than normal.

“We have coaches that do a good job of getting — that have been helping with this crazy year of rotation of what we’ve been going through. They do a good job of helping,” Edelman told Rapoport in a recent interview. “We all kind of just chip away at kind of getting whoever’s in caught up. And that’s everyone, not just the new guys. We’re such a game plan team. Every week, you install (the game plan) and everyone’s got to go out there in practice and learn it together. I think you get so caught up in that, you almost forget the outside things that are happening.”

The Patriots have a foundation on offense, but they install a weekly game plan to ensure they’ve designed plays and schemes to exploit the weaknesses of their opponent in any given week. With the Patriots putting laser focus into each installation, players like Edelman don’t have much time to reflect upon the comings and goings of teammates, he said.

“Playing in this league for a while, you’re never surprised with anything, just because there’s so many bizarre things that happen — this, that, the other,” Edelman said on the podcast. “You try to kind of keep your focus on what you can control, and that’s trying to make your game better.”

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