With Gronkowski Gone, Patriots Will Go Only as Far as Edelman Can

[Soul_Survivor88]

The point of the article is just the fact that if Edelman goes down, it becomes exponentially harder because Edelman has the same effect as Gronk, he draws a lot of the attention which allows other guys to make plays.

We saw it last year in Denver. If Edelman was 100%, they'd have 5 rings right now because they absolutely would have beaten Carolina and nearly beat Denver.

But without him, Brady's forced to try and win with Bennett, Hogan, Mitchell and an Amendola who will hopefully be healthy by the playoffs. It's clearly better than who he had in 2006, but hard to argue that having Edelman at where he is now health-wise on the field completely flips their chances there.

I felt the same way you did Ian, but then I realized that there are so many viable receiving options and threats in the running game, and it showed last night, even with a less-than-stellar performance by Edelman

 

[bormio]

But nobody can play the Edelman role - the jab, jab, move the chains over and over. Hogan can be the Gronk, take the top off, guy. But no one yet is suited to the physical, dirty grunt work that Jules does. Which is why all went to **** last year after the Giants game.