Edelman dealing with tendon injury in knee.

[venecol]

What happened to football players play football.

Jules (5'10") has been gutting it out and I'm sure he wants to play. He looked like crap last game. Have you not heard all the stories about teams forcing their injured players onto the field. Did you see what happened to Gronk. It's time for Harry (6'4"), Sanu (6'2"), Dorsett (5'10"), and Myers (6'2") to pick up the slack. Brady needs to play better also. No excuses.

 

[Ring 6]

Jules (5'10") has been gutting it out and I'm sure he wants to play. He looked like crap last game. Have you not heard all the stories about teams forcing their injured players onto the field. Did you see what happened to Gronk. It's time for Harry (6'4"), Sanu (6'2"), Dorsett (5'10"), and Myers (6'2") to pick up the slack. Brady needs to play better also. No excuses.

I wasn’t aware height was all that mattered in football.
This is a huge game. We need to win it for a bye. If he can play he should play.
No I haven’t heard about all the teams forcing injured players on the field. I have only heard of one instance where the jets disputed a players injury. Perhaps you can show me the rest of “all the teams forcing players on the field” and then o could take that into consideration of your point.

 

[Mack Herron]

Jules (5'10") has been gutting it out and I'm sure he wants to play. He looked like crap last game. Have you not heard all the stories about teams forcing their injured players onto the field. Did you see what happened to Gronk. It's time for Harry (6'4"), Sanu (6'2"), Dorsett (5'10"), and Myers (6'2") to pick up the slack. Brady needs to play better also. No excuses.

Is it my imagination or has the running game been showing a glimmer of life? With the weather and opponent I think we lean more heavily on the run as there is little reason to expect anything more than a complimentary contribution from the passing game.

 

[LightSkinSmurf]

Because without JE11, the Pats don't stand a chance in the playoffs against good teams. He's 60% of the offensive production.

Assuming JE can't play, who do you think Pats can beat w/o him: HOU, KC, BAL, or MIA?

Clearly MIA, so rest him. Anyway, the Boogeymen alone can probably beat Fitzmagic and score more TDs than he throws.

You think they stand a chance if they have no BYE and have to go on the road twice against good teams? I know edelman is important but the BYE is just as if not more important, IMO.

 

[203Pat]

Some seem to think we have the luxury of resting our most important players.

 

[venecol]

Are you new?

Game is in NE. Pats have won last 10 years in a row by avg. score of 33-13. They are 16-2 at home since 2001. So I'm not worried they can beat the phins w/o Jules.

 

[venecol]

You think they stand a chance if they have no BYE and have to go on the road twice against good teams? I know edelman is important but the BYE is just as if not more important, IMO.

What I think is that with home field advantage, the Patriots can defeat both Bills and Phins without JE. The Pats D will shut both those teams out and TB with the O will score enough to pull out wins. It's time for other WRs to step up their game. For God's sakes, this is Week 16. It's now or never.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Because without JE11, the Pats don't stand a chance in the playoffs against good teams. He's 60% of the offensive production.

Assuming JE can't play, who do you think Pats can beat w/o him: HOU, KC, BAL, or MIA?

Clearly MIA, so rest him. Anyway, the Boogeymen alone can probably beat Fitzmagic and score more TDs than he throws.

What I do feel strongly about is if they don't get a bye, it wont matter how healthy JE is.

 

[venecol]

Ian Rapaport said on the NFLN morning show that Edelman feels better than he did last week and that viral video was just a "slow start" to practice.

I can't tell if this is misinformation being put out by the team to keep the Bills honest in coverage at the beginning of the game, or he's better off than Giardi has made him sound these last couple weeks. I'm guessing option 1.

It would be great if all the talk about his knee was exagerated and he in fact is fine and there are no tendon concerns. Was there ever any reliable news on the so called knee injury or was it all speculation?

 

[LightSkinSmurf]

What I think is that with home field advantage, the Patriots can defeat both Bills and Phins without JE. The Pats D will shut both those teams out and TB with the O will score enough to pull out wins. It's time for other WRs to step up their game. For God's sakes, this is Week 16. It's now or never.

It's likely never lol......I've been saying that "now or never" line for the last few weeks with this offense. I mean, you're trusting an offense that already has trouble cracking 20 EVEN WITH EDELMAN to score enough points against a good bills defense without him? That gamble is a terrible gamble to take. This offense isn't very good even with him on the field and now you're resting him and saying the O will score enough without him? Nah man. I'm not banking on that.

Even if you think they could beat both teams without edelman, that is far from a guarantee. We aren't good enough to just sit out our best players and assume victory. The BYE is far too important to risk losing. We can't do it. I don't even think it should be considered. If we lose the BYE it won't matter how healthy edelman is anyways.

 

[203Pat]

What I think is that with home field advantage, the Patriots can defeat both Bills and Phins without JE. The Pats D will shut both those teams out and TB with the O will score enough to pull out wins. It's time for other WRs to step up their game. For God's sakes, this is Week 16. It's now or never.

If the Patriots defense holds the Bills and Dolphins to 10 points per game I don't know if the offense can manage to get 11 points without Edelman.

 

[venecol]

It's likely never lol......I've been saying that "now or never" line for the last few weeks with this offense. I mean, you're trusting an offense that already has trouble cracking 20 EVEN WITH EDELMAN to score enough points against a good bills defense without him? That gamble is a terrible gamble to take. This offense isn't very good even with him on the field and now you're resting him and saying the O will score enough without him? Nah man. I'm not banking on that.

Even if you think they could beat both teams without edelman, that is far from a guarantee. We aren't good enough to just sit out our best players and assume victory. The BYE is far too important to risk losing. We can't do it. I don't even think it should be considered. If we lose the BYE it won't matter how healthy edelman is anyways.

Mack brought up running game with complementary passing. They need to try something different because team has been too one dimensional. Idk man, I hear you. All I have is hope and a prayer they can make it happen.

I keep on telling myself McDaniels has been holding back on purpose and won't unleash all the creative and high success rate plays until, well now. Lmao

 

[Kontradiction]

Edelman injury status gets a positive update from Ian Rapoport

“My understanding is Julian Edelman is expected to play for the Patriots on Saturday in what is a huge, huge game for them," said Rapoport. "So much at stake, you know that he’s not gonna miss this one."

Edelman moved gingerly during recent media availability at practice, but Rapoport's sources spun it positively.

"He actually moved pretty well in practice, just kind of a slow starter - [he's] probably less banged up this week than he was last week," said Rapoport. "So yes, expect Edelman to play and expect him to be close to his old self in New England."

I hope that second paragraph is correct.

 

[n6249c]

You need to include the 2 other options to lend perspective:
C. Same as A but they lose anyway.
D. Same as B but they win anyway.

Given all 4, sitting him is the best choice, for him and maybe the team. What happened with Next Man Up.

Agree. And even considering all 4 scenarios there’s the problem that it’s not absolute. Play him and he may be out for the rest of the season, he may be even less effective for the rest of the season, or he may be unaffected. It’s probabilities shifting across the spectrum for all of the possibilities.

With all that said, on that basis I agree the best choice is sitting him.

Another way to look at it is, if he has to miss games which games should he miss, regular season or playoffs? Pats have clinched a playoff slot, but they haven’t clinched the division. Unfortunately Buffalo has what amounts to a week 17 bye, so the Pats only hope for winning the AFCE is to win this weekend. On that basis playing Jules may be necessary. <edited after research> so if the Pats lose to Buffalo they must win at Miami to win the division. Assuming Buffalo wins in Foxboro and both teams win next week, Pats win the division on the third tiebreaker, which is “Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games.” Bills lost to Eagles and Browns so Pats own the tiebreaker. Based on that this isn’t a must-win game. So Jules should sit.

One other factor to consider is that sitting Jules might perversely be beneficial in forcing Brady to actually look more for his other receivers, and for them to have to step up. And, for that matter, forcing Josh to do a better job of calling the game. Don’t really think those factors are enough to outweigh losing Squirrel, but they could help reduce the impact if he can’t go.