Yeah, he was terribly inconsistent last year, but so was Tate. I do agree that none of us want to see Edelman go because of his rookie season, 7th round pick, former QB, he looked like another genius draft steal. That's an instant fan favorite in this area, just like Woodhead last year. Cut, signed, performs incredible in doing the longest tenured Patriot's job who is probably up there on everyones all-time favorite patriot list.
The difference I see is that Edelman proved in his rookie year he could do the job, a lot of speculation about his drop off last year was that he was never put on the field enough to get into any kind of rhythm, I never played in the NFL, I don't know how long it takes these guys to get comfortable on the field when they get very few opportunities all season because everyone stayed pretty healthy. When he was in for a decent amount of time he snagged half of his passes all season (for all but 14 of his yards) and returned a punt for a TD. Tate was in for quite a bit of the season and just never looked comfortable.