TyronePoole

He was tied for 26th in Yards per with the immortal Brandon Tate and 17th in the league last year in total yards, not exactly a weapon.

There are plenty of guys on this roster that could fulfill that role as well as Edelman, I'm certain of it.

Well that's a huge reason, and of course Belichick has to factor it in. We basically are keeping everyone from last year (trade scott/fanene for anderson/carter) and adding a bunch of young players and FA's, there's simply way less room to make the team as a marginal player.

Yeah I guess his chances improve if Welker is playing just under the tag all year. I still wonder though, how good is edelman? Is he that good that he can't be replaced by Ebert or someone else? I'm not buying that he steps in and there's no drop off between him and welker. And it's an insult to DBs to assume that he can be successfully converted.

supafly

Well, as I said in my earlier post...his 'good' year of returning was the yr before, and he dropped from 15.3 in 2010 to 10.7 in 2011. I wasn't claiming that he had that great of a yr last yr, but when you're a PR who has the moves to bring it to the house you still offer something to your team.

Regardless, in 2010 he was one of the NFL's top punt returners, no? I could be wrong, but I thought he was up there relatively high. You are right in stating that his average and production wasn't as high last yr, although the TD and versatility probably make up for it on some level.

Averaging a TD per season in the past 2 yrs at a position where Belichick feels that we (his words) 'need to make some needed improvements' should make him pretty safe here for the upcoming yr.

I do recognize that everyone feels differently though, so I respect your opinion that he may not make it. As we both stated, only Belichick will determine how much he factors Edelman's potential jeopardy with the 'other' battles that will go on for the roster. He may not take Edelman's position into acct at all, for all we know, and he could be happy that the PR position on ST in already locked up with a player who can offer actual playing time if it came down to it.

We don't expect guys like Slater or some of the others to see the field too much either, so it's quite possible that #11 could be lumped in with those players. Only time will tell, and it will be a good TC with excellent depth and positional competition to make the 53 man roster.

My hunch tells me that Belichick values a guy in the 45-53 range who can play all 3 phases of the game (although not 'great' most aren't or they wouldn't be in the 45-53 range to begin with), is cheap on a rookie deal, knows the system and has attended many meetings on both sides of the ball, with live game reps that have been included. To me, that should make him pretty solid. The only spot he may be on the 'bubble' in is as a pure WR.

That could also change with Welker's situation, but hopefully it won't. I agree that Edelman is not going to step in and replace Welker, but as Sciz pointed out 6/67 ave yrds when he has played in that role isn't too shabby.

I think the better question is whether or not the NEP will be interested in re-upping him next yr, when his rookie deal is up (IIRC). I personally don't see as much debate in this yr's 'bubble' talk. I do however, recognize the opinions of others and realize that most will not agree on all players/positions.

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Reckedtrek

According to many here, we should get *at least* two first rounders for him. He's Jerry freaking Rice AND Ed Reed all rolled into one. Don't you know he had a great rookie season and then was a good punt returner in 2010? These kind of players just CAN'T be replaced, you know!

He played QB in college. If we get rid of him, you might as well kiss the Pats wildcat package right out the window. And who will we get as Wilfork's backup? Actually, Wilfork should be backing up Edelman...

(posted with a great deal of sarcasm, although many will think it is or should be true).

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supafly

I also think that many are pretty reasonable about their expectations and his potential here.

As I said, I think he is lumped in with the roster #45-53 guys, and he is 'good' at one true position, and that is a PR. We can always make the same kind of argument for a player such as Tracy White, Tarpinian etc..they do not really contribute all that much with actual positional duties, but they still offer our team a 'plus' in the area of ST's.

He does add versatility in the fact that he is just as good as many of the 'other' positional outcasts such as Slater etc.

I do not want to see him on the field too much if it can be helped...unless Welker goes down or does not come back; then I would like to see him used more in the primary slot role that we saw him do well in at times.

I do not agree that he should be a defensive player either, and although Belichick forgets way more than I will ever really know about these sorts of things, I think he was nothing more than a fill in due to the poor situation in the secondary.

That all said, I applaud him greatly for being able to contribute on all 3 phases, even if that is only as a backup. It takes great dedication to be able to handle multiple assignments, attend multiple meetings/film study on both sides of the ball etc. He plays with great heart, and I believe that his friendly rookie contract, knowledge of certain schemes, and big play potential on ST are certainly enough to keep him as one of the last remaining players in that #45-53 grouping.

We all can agree that ST are a big Belichick plus, and that is also an area that we cannot move backwards on. I would certainly keep him for this upcoming season.

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AndyJohnson

This is a bigger and more overused misconception. There is no reason that Edelman cannot play when Welker is healthy, other than the real one, that he has not been good enough to earn playing time.
If he seriously was capable of the contrived stats you came up with, he would have been on the field the last 2 years. When he has been on the field he has done nothing to indicate he could come close to those numbers, or be anything but a disaster in Welkers role.

Sciz

Summary of this post:
"I don't like what these numbers say. I'll ignore them."

If you have stats for how many snaps Edelman has seen in the slot over the past two seasons, I'd love to see them. Other than that, it's hard to say how he'd do in the Welker role because we've only seen him do it for one game the past two seasons. You are basing your opinion on him as a slot receiver on his inability to go out of position and earn a starting job as an outside receiver. If that makes sense in your head, then I don't think arguing with me is going to get you anywhere.

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Deus Irae

I see you asking for stats on Edelman slot snaps. Reiss has the offensive snap totals, which is probably as close as it gets:

2010: Edelman - 17.2%
2011: Edelman - 13.3%

Offensive snaps for 2010 season - New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

Final '11 offensive snap counts - New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

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AndyJohnson

Only if you want to be ignorant and pretend anyone who disagrees with you couldn't possibly be objective, because they disagree with you.

The % was listed, and its about 15% over 2 years, where he caught 11 passes. If we assume a 'slot receiver' plays 2/3s of the plays, then his 11 project to 66 in 2 years as a 'starting slot'. I am not impressed.

There is room on the field for more than 1 slot receiver. The Patriots have consistently and increasing put other players in that spot than Edelman.

doesntmatter1

I have recently rewatched many of our games from this past season and looked strictly at our wideouts and our offense in general. Then I looked at edelman playing db in the philly and baltimore game and I came away with a mixed outlook.

As a wideout we often compare him to welker but after watching many games we should compare him to hernandez. He runs the EXACT routes and plays hernandez does, even the ones where it involves them lining up in the backfield. On alot of the plays, I noticed it was often branch, welker, gronk, hernandez, and woodhead. All of them consistenly got open and then from time to time edelman would come inplace of hernandez, run the same play and fail to get open the way hernandez does, not even on the easy drag routes.

Here's the problem, he has suspect hands, he doesn't have the size herenandez does, and he just may be the worst route runner i've seen in some time(rounds his routes). Then i wondered if he could beat out branch so i took my time looking only at those two. Looking strictly at these two i came away with a new respect for branch's game. Though they both lack deep speed, branch's routes were so sharp and actually got open waaay more than I realized and just wasn't thrown the ball. Branch ran decoy routes to perfection that allowed easy completions to our te and he is an underated blocker. Edelman on the other hand was easily slowed down by contact and failed to run pick routes the way branch did nor did he get much separation and I could see why brady didn't even look his way half the time. If edelman isn't catching bubble screens where his elusiveness shines, he is pretty much useless as a wide receiver.

Now onto edelman and special teams. From what I could see(wish i could see an aerial view on this) he is pretty good containing his lane and is a solid tackler. And some of his punt returns showcased amazing vision and quickness. He simply is one of the most dangerous punt returners in the league.

Now onto him playing slot db. This was very promising, especially the eagles game. His tackling was very solid, stayed close to the receiver, and above all got some really effective jams off. Now the baltimore game wasn't nearly as bad as people think it was. Edelman played slot the entire game and didn't have any problems until the fourth quarter. And yes he was covering bolden in the first half as well. And when you consider how physical anquan is I would say edelman did damn good. In the fourth, edelman had tight coverage for the most part and on one of bolden's big catch and runs edelman was close to him but it kinda seemed like noone was really covering him and it was just a hole in the zone.

If it were up to me he would never see the field as a wideout even if we didn't have welker etc. I value special teams but not particulary the pr because its not often they bring it the house so that wouldn't be enough for me to keep him. I would let him compete at db and see if he can win a roster spot on that alone.

PS- i dont care about his performance in the 09 raven game because his welker imitation led us to a horrible offensive showing where I believe an 80% welker would have at least made the game competetive. Lastly, if we can cut tate, who was a pretty good returner and held college records, i don't see how edelman can make make it honestly after all the signings. In some ways i view edelman as a white hester without the deep speed. And like hester, he doesnt really have a position.