Julian Edelman’s return on Sunday was one that caught the eye of everyone who was on hand to take in the practice and it’s a positive sign for the veteran as he continues working his way back from offseason foot surgery.
Edelman’s absence, coupled with Danny Amendola being sidelined, has allowed some of the younger players to take advantage of the additional reps in practice and to this point, it’s worked out quite well. The receiver position remains one of the deepest and most competitive at training camp so far, with Edelman pointing out that every one of them is working hard.
“Everyone’s competing hard. Everyone’s working hard in the classroom,” Edelman told reporters on Sunday. They’re doing it in the drills and it’s translating in the team periods, so anytime there’s more competition in any position, it’s just going to push guys to be better.”
“We have guys going out there and making plays. You have Harp [Chris Harper], you’ve got D.C. [DeAndre Carter], you’ve got Hogs [Chris Hogan], A.D. [Aaron Dobson] is doing real well. Dev [Devin Lucien] going in there and being a rookie, it’s tough for him, but he’s continuing to try to get better. Malcolm [Mitchell], he’s shown some stuff, and Slate [Matthew Slater], just being a veteran. You’ve got a bunch of guys out there, Nate Washington as well, can’t forget him, Keshawn [Martin]. Every guy has worked hard and every guy has done good things.”
Seeing so many new players trying to learn the system presents its own challenge, but Edelman has been trying to do his part to help his new teammates. He remembers what it was like to be a 7th round draft pick and how hard it was for him to get acclimated, so now he’s just trying to pay things forward a bit and be as helpful as he can.
He’s answered questions and he’s given advice, and he’s happy to help as the goal is to make everyone, which will obviously make the team better heading into 2016.
“I tell them whatever they want to hear. I tell them what I would do in that situation,” said Edelman. “They’ve asked a lot of questions, and that’s part of my job, to help make this corps as best as possible. I’ll go down and we’ll talk about, ‘Hey, I would have done this; I would have stacked a little more. Hey, give a little something here,’ you know, those types of things.”
“I remember what it was like when I was a rookie. You have so many things going through your head. You’re in a new area, you’re new here, you’re new there, so it’s good to have a little help sometimes.”
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
