Edelman: Broken Foot, Likely Back for Playoffs

Although Jules is special, I suspect Amendola will take over his role as the main motion guy and put up similar production. Martin will step in to Amendola's spot and be fine as well. As someone else said, the return of Cannon, Vollmer and Jackson will be bigger than the potential return of Edelman.

Oswlek said:

I'd rather just promote Harper.

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Providing that he is healthy, I tend to lean towards Martin over Harper.

Oswlek said:

There's a difference between doing something by choice and doing it by necessity. Unless Martin is back or the team goes three TE the whole time, Dobson will get snaps.

It was at least somewhat telling that Brady looked in Aaron's direction twice on that final drive, including a really important first down sideline conversion.

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Respect, but I don't think my statement directly said anything about whether or not he'd be on the field. In fact, I expect him to be on the field. My post was talking about whether or not he would be effective in whatever role they ask of him. That is what is in doubt to me. I have quit believing he will be anything significant in this offense. And it would appear that we would need something approaching that with Jules being out. It's one thing to talk next man up with a Dion Lewis. Julian Edelman is something entirely different.

Considering how poorly Denver is playing, it looks to be the possible difference between a 1st and 2nd seed. If Julian is healthy for the playoffs, it really makes little difference to their SB chances.

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Again, I don't see how Julian's loss or availability could be downplayed. He makes the toughest catches, converts more third downs than just about everyone else and was a true threat in the redzone. I respect you a great deal, Os, but we'll just have to disagree on this one.

PatriotsPimp136 said:

Idk about that. If they can get that number 1 seed anything can happen.

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They'll benefit from a weak AFC, but I don't think it's a guarantee. Not that anything in the NFL is a guarantee, but Jules is a big blow. I think we have been spoiled a bit here. He's been so consistent the past season and some. While I am not expecting anything near a full offensive collapse of any kind, I also do not believe it will just be business as usual. Some of us are forgetting the amount of third downs the guy converts. He makes tough catches, and while I do believe we have some pieces that will step up, Jules was putting up career redzone numbers and at times was Brady's favorite target. Not to mention how important he was to Brady getting the ball out quickly. The O-Line has sufficed but Brady getting the ball out so quickly is a big reason. He'll be tough to replace.

I really do think Amendola will step in and do all right; this was his job to begin with, don't forget. Time for LaFell and Brady to really get it going as well. Martin made some tough catches earlier in the year and I like him as a third wide-out, then have goofy Dobson as your four. As others have said, the other guy I gotta see more out of is Chandler, the drops suck.

The only way this offense would totally shut down is if Brady or Gronkowski were out.

Julian will be missed. No doubt about that. I just want our wrs to step up. We can't depend on one guy to mess up our offensive rhythm.

I was thinking martin can be another option at the slot if he can pick up this offense.

PatsBoy12 said:

Again, I don't see how Julian's loss or availability could be downplayed.

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Absolute worst case scenario, how many games do you see NE losing? Since they already have a two game lead on Denver, do you see them falling behind the Mountain Men? Unless you think either A) NE will fall to the #3 seed or B) Edelman won't be the same player when he returns (neither seem all that likely to me), then it really is only a difference between a 1st or 2nd seed.

PatsBoy12 said:

My post was talking about whether or not he would be effective in whatever role they ask of him. That is what is in doubt to me. I have quit believing he will be anything significant in this offense.

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Who said anything significant? And what role are they asking of him? Dobson doesn't need to be Edelman to be a useful player in his absence.

robertweathers said:

Providing that he is healthy, I tend to lean towards Martin over Harper.

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As would I, but he's already on the roster, I was comparing "acquisitions."

letekro said:

Although Jules is special, I suspect Amendola will take over his role as the main motion guy and put up similar production. Martin will step in to Amendola's spot and be fine as well. As someone else said, the return of Cannon, Vollmer and Jackson will be bigger than the potential return of Edelman.

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The concerning thing about yesterday was that while JPP is very good, TB12 was harassed by a very average defensive line.

Having the best OL possible out there helping give TB12 a few more milliseconds to operate and receivers to separate from defenders would be huge.

The positive is that je is not done for the playoffs and not even for the year necessarily.

Other than denver who seems to be collapsing. Our schedule isnt too daunting the rest of the way and i think we can get by. I mean the bills, titans, philly, houston are we really scared to face them?

Right now we are 2 games up on a first round bye. And hopefully the bungles drop a few coming up

Oswlek said:

Absolute worst case scenario, how many games do you see NE losing? Since they already have a two game lead on Denver, do you see them falling behind the Mountain Men? Unless you think either A) NE will fall to the #3 seed or B) Edelman won't be the same player when he returns (neither seem all that likely to me), then it really is only a difference between a 1st or 2nd seed.

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I'm not arguing record or seeding or any of that. I'm simply saying his absence will be felt no matter what happens from here on. I don't see any way it cannot be. I have said absolutely zero about what their record will be, can they win, will they win, etc. NOTHING. Simply, he will be missed.

Who said anything significant? And what role are they asking of him? Dobson doesn't need to be Edelman to be a useful player in his absence.

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My statement was a direct response to something someone else posted. I don't recall ever saying that he would be asked to replace Edelman. I simply was making the point that he has not shown he can be anything other than a spot duty type of player. I have no idea what they will ask of him, but I'm willing to bet at least that he'll be asked to be a bit more than spot duty in the short term. Again, I have little confidence in him to be anything in this offense except what we have already seen this season. The fact that he's been a healthy scratch multiple times this season would suggest this is at least somewhat justified. I don't know what else to say. I guess you can respond whatever you'd like and I'll leave it alone. I still respect you, man.

If Aaron Dobson Cannot make a name for himself now we should just cut our loses. LaFell out for six weeks earlier in the season now Julian Edelman until thePlayoffs. Thats more than enough time for Dobson to build a good repoire with Brady. I hope Dobson is working out with LaFell who has a Big Catch radius for his size, Dobson needs to start playing up to his statue.

PatsBoy12 said:

I don't see how this cannot be considered a huge blow to their SB aspirations. Only time will tell if it is ultimately insurmountable, but I look for the team to continue to fight it out. The O is diversified enough to cover up some holes. However, this is a growing list of injuries now. There comes a time when even the greatest QB and Coach can start to feel the strain of all of these losses to key players. I still believe that we have what it takes, but the road just got exponentially harder.

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If he is back for the playoffs and can compete at a high level why is it such a blow to our SB aspirations? If he is not back or is not the same then I'd agree but there is not yet any indication of that being the case.

I'd say it might be a blow to our aspirations for the #1 seed but we can overcome this for the time being.

PatsBoy12 said:

I'm not arguing record or seeding or any of that. I'm simply saying his absence will be felt no matter what happens from here on. I don't see any way it cannot be. I have said absolutely zero about what their record will be, can they win, will they win, etc. NOTHING. Simply, he will be missed.

My statement was a direct response to something someone else posted. I don't recall ever saying that he would be asked to replace Edelman. I simply was making the point that he has not shown he can be anything other than a spot duty type of player. I have no idea what they will ask of him, but I'm willing to bet at least that he'll be asked to be a bit more than spot duty in the short term. Again, I have little confidence in him to be anything in this offense except what we have already seen this season. The fact that he's been a healthy scratch multiple times this season would suggest this is at least somewhat justified. I don't know what else to say. I guess you can respond whatever you'd like and I'll leave it alone. I still respect you, man.

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I guess our disagreement is because, IMO, those early comments overstate the position both times.

For instance, all TBR said was that he hoped Dobson would "get more opportunities while Edelman recovers." He never said he expected Aaron to be "the answer" or even that he wished he would get the majority of the opportunities, just "more."

As for Edelman, not one single person understates how much he means to the Patriots' offense. But it is still worth pointing out that NE is almost a shoo-in for a top two seed and Edelman will most likely be fine when he returns. I contend that saying Julian's loss is a huge blow to their SB chances without making note of these facts is actually overstating his impact.

Patriots: WR Julian Edelman will have surgery on broken foot; NE "looking at 6-8 weeks without its No. 1 WR" - NESN.com -via ESPN ESPN App

Once cannon, vollmer and Jackson are back, Barker will be cut and we can promote Harper. I think we will be fine, just so long as our OL stays healthy down the stretch.

We need dropson to start being a player. Lafell needs more targets as well.

Oswlek said:

I guess our disagreement is because, IMO, those early comments overstate the position both times.

For instance, all TBR said was that he hoped Dobson would "get more opportunities while Edelman recovers." He never said he expected Aaron to be "the answer" or even that he wished he would get the majority of the opportunities, just "more."

As for Edelman, not one single person understates how much he means to the Patriots' offense. But it is still worth pointing out that NE is almost a shoo-in for a top three seed and Edelman will most likely be fine when he returns. I contend that saying Julian's loss is a huge blow to their SB chances without making note of these facts is actually overstating his impact.

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Fair enough, Os. Guess it just seems to me that the no. 1 seed and all that is being talked about like a guarantee no matter what. And I don't know if I truly believe it to that extent.

We are unstoppable when Brady spreads the ball around and helps lessen injuries if we don't rely on one person too much. This could help us in the long run when edelman comes back.

Everyone is talking about Dobson. Maybe Keshawn Martin gets more snaps when he's healthy.