Fearless, Inspiring, Empowering: Teammates Rave About Julian Edelman's Toughness
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
ATLANTA (CBS) -- Julian Edelman is not like most people. We know this.
His journey is unlike most players', going from a college quarterback at a mid-major school, to being a seventh-round draft pick by the most successful franchise in the NFL, to splitting time on offense and defense and special teams, to becoming the second-most prolific receiver in NFL postseason history. He's caught a Super Bowl-winning touchdown pass and he also made one of the most memorable catches in Super Bowl history.
None of that is possible unless the man is a little bit crazy.
On the football field, that can be a good thing. And in the case of Edelman, it manifests itself every single Sunday, when the 5-foot-10, 198-pound receiver hurls his body into the chests and helmets of any and every opponent who stands in his way.
Sometimes, that's necessary. Other times, not so much. But seemingly every time he touches the football, Julian Edelman is seeking out contact.
"It's inspiring for a guy like me," said fullback James Develin, whose job actually requires the seeking of contact. "The guy is as tough as they come. I have all the respect for the way he plays the game. I mean, I love it. It's just a testament to him and the way that he works and the way that he gets himself ready to go. I mean, it's a pretty cool thing."
Everyone on the Patriots, at every position, sees and admires the way Edelman goes about his business on the football field.
"A lot of people don't really understand how hard that is, and the punishment he's taking when he's catching those balls over the middle, a lot of people can't do it," fellow Patriots receiver Phillip Dorsett said of Edelman. "And that's what sets him apart from a lot of other guys."
Some football players lead by example. Others are more vocal. Edelman is both.
Yet it's generally what he does on the football field -- namely, stepping in to contact instead of avoiding contact -- that his teammates can't help but try to match.
"It empowers us," Dorsett said. "We know how tough he is as a player. He's fearless. And it makes us fearless when we go out there. We gotta leave it all out on the field, and he does that every week. We try to go out there and do it for him."
And certainly, Edelman's style does not go unnoticed by the man throwing him the football.
"He's got a physical style of play and I think he enjoys mixing it up," Tom Brady said. "He's got a great playing strength about him. He always has. He's been a very physical route runner for his size. You don't think of Julian as a big guy, but Julian, he's got a great center of gravity, he's got a lot of core strength. So he plays much bigger than his frame, and that provides a huge benefit for our team."
The examples of Edelman playing with this style are countless, but perhaps the most perfect one came just a few weeks ago. With 1:16 left to play in the third quarter in the divisional round game against the Chargers, and with the Patriots leading by 24 points, Edelman caught a pass over the middle and had several options. He could have run toward the sideline. He could have dropped to the turf, taken the yardage gained, and moved on to the next snap. He could have done whatever was necessary to protect himself.
Instead, Edelman decided to do the hitting instead of getting hit, opting to turn his body into a torpedo into the sternum of a 6-foot-2, 251-pound linebacker. Edelman then rolled over a downed defender, popped to his feet, and lunged forward for extra yardage as a whole host of Chargers sought to bring him down.
That is the quintessential Edelman play.
Despite what it may look like, Edelman claims that it brings him no pleasure to make such decisions.
"No one prefers contact," Edelman said. "Not even me."
He may have been honest with such an answer, but his actions tell a different story.
THE PAST
Anyone who's ever watched a single Patriots game on TV has been told time and time again that Edelman was a quarterback in college. It has become a running joke, along the lines of "Antonio Gates played basketball in college." Everyone knows the tidbit, yet it's nevertheless repeated to the point of inanity.
And that one morsel of information really doesn't capture Edelman's story. Not at all. He had to play a year at a community college before Kent State gave him a chance. There, he was more of a running threat than a passing threat, and though he was not invited to the scouting combine, and though he may not have been discussed as a top level prospect prior to the 2009 draft, his talent was evident to one important person: Bill Belichick.
The Patriots drafted Edelman in the seventh round. Only 24 players were drafted after him. The team made the distinction of drafting Edelman as a receiver, but nobody knew quite what to expect out of a guy who had caught exactly one pass for 11 yards in college.
Joining a receiver room that included a late-prime Randy Moss and a very-much-in-his-prime Wes Welker, Edelman put in the necessary work to get attention. Edelman's 54 pass targets were third-most on that 2009 team, behind Welker (162) and Moss (137), which at the very least indicated that Tom Brady liked what he saw out of his fellow Bay Area quarterback.
And though Edelman's numbers as a rookie (37 receptions, 359 yards, 1 TD) were not the stuff of legend, what he did in his lone postseason game that year was a sign of things to come.
With Welker suffering a torn knee in Week 17, Edelman was thrust into a much larger role in the Patriots' wild card round game against the Ravens. Though the Patriots got blown out in that game, Edelman was the lone bright spot. He caught six passes for 44 yards and also two touchdowns, doubling his regular-season touchdown total in a span of just 25 minutes.
Few knew it on that otherwise regrettable afternoon, but a playoff legend was born.
But before that postseason monster truly came to light, Edelman had to grind. He received hardly any attention in 2010, catching seven total passes on the year, and it didn't get any better in 2011, when he caught just four passes.
Yet his game was about much more than offense, and Belichick recognized that. Already utilizing Edelman in kick coverage and as a punt returner, Belichick saw enough in Edelman to give him some playing time on defense. Edelman more than held his own, eventually drawing the duty of covering Anquan Boldin in an AFC Championship Game. The Patriots won. In the Super Bowl two weeks later, Edelman didn't play defense. The Patriots lost.
The next season, Edelman's role on offense increased, with 21 receptions for 235 yards, but a broken foot ended his promising campaign.
"Unselfish," Belichick said this week when asked about Edelman. "Whatever we ask him to do, he's always willing to do it. Gives his best, and he does a lot of things to help other players around him play better or achieve success. I think we all really respect him for that. I appreciate what he does to help the football team in so many areas, going back to when he played defense for us in playoff games, and he's obviously returned kicks, played in the kicking game, made a lot of plays on offense as well. So he's always there and we can always count on him."
A free agent in the offseason that followed, Edelman's career was very much up in the air, but he returned to New England to see if he could build upon what he had already started.
Suffice it to say, he made the right decision.
THE FUTURE
Since the 2013 season, Edelman has caught 430 passes for 4,676 yards and 26 touchdowns in 67 regular-season games. He's also averaged 9.9 yards per return on 105 punt returns, bringing one back for a touchdown. He's completed two passes for 43 yards, to boot.
None of that includes what he's done in the playoffs, which has really put him on an entirely separate level. In 12 playoff games since the 2013 season, he's caught 96 passes for 1,196 yards and three touchdowns. He threw a 51-yard touchdown to Danny Amendola to help the Patriots in the 2014 playoffs against the Ravens, en route to a Super Bowl during which Edelman not only caught the game-winning touchdown but also came through with a significant first-down pickup on a third-and-14. That was a play that saw Edelman catch a ball over the middle, absorb a heavy hit from a powerful safety, and bounce right up to fight for more yards.
Typical Edelman.
Add it all up, and he ranks second all time in postseason receptions, behind only Jerry Rice. He ranks fourth in career postseason receiving yards, but he'll jump into second place if he has 45 receiving yards on Sunday. One of the most successful runs of any football team in history has had a seventh-round pick collegiate quarterback-turned-receiver at the heart of it.
As a result of his prolific postseason resume, he's generated real discussion in recent weeks about being a Hall of Fame candidate. As someone who may or may not have started that discussion, this must be said: Obviously, Edelman's receiving numbers overall don't qualify him for the Hall of Fame. He ranks 148th all time in receptions, 248th in receiving yards, and he's only caught 30 touchdowns. He has no All-Pros or Pro Bowls in his history.
But when evaluating a player's legacy and impact on football history, how could anyone have a better tale than Edelman? And that leads to another question -- what are these guys playing every Sunday for? Is it to compile stats, or is it to win? And how could any non-quarterback lay claim to being responsible for more winning than Julian Edelman.
The postseason is what ultimately matters the most. The postseason is why Kurt Warner is in the Hall of Fame. Same for Terrell Davis, Joe Namath, and Lynn Swann.
If those guys are in the Hall of Fame, a potential three-time Super Bowl champion receiver like Edelman warrants serious consideration. The teams throughout history that have made three straight Super Bowls in the past were littered with Hall of Famers, yet outside of Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, these Patriots lack clear-cut players for that honor. Edelman is surely worthy of consideration.
THE PRESENT
Of course, one cannot become a three-time Super Bowl champion without actually winning that third Super Bowl. That is the task at hand this week in Atlanta. Despite coming off a torn ACL at age 32, and despite coming off a four-game PED suspension to start the year, Edelman has been a driving force of getting this team back to the Super Bowl.
Despite playing just 12 games, he led the team in receiving yards (850) and finished second on the team in targets (108) and receptions (74). He caught six touchdowns, doubling his total from his last healthy season and tying his second-best number for any season of his career.
"He has had an incredible year and just dealing with the adversity of his knee, not playing the first four weeks, then coming in and basically taking over, having a career year," Brady said of Edelman. "What he's done in the playoffs is really spectacular. Nothing surprises me with Julian. I think he's a great competitor and nobody works harder than Julian to try to be the best he can be for our team. Just so proud of him and everything he's accomplished. He works for everything, a great work ethic and a great mental attitude and hopefully he can go out and have his best game of the year."
Due to that injury, Edelman was not on the field when the Patriots lost to the Eagles. He did learn what a Super Bowl defeat felt like back in 2011 against the Giants, but he was instrumental in leading the Patriots to championships in 2014 and 2016. There was that whole matter of a miracle catch that you might recall.
And while nobody can know exactly how Edelman will impact Sunday's game against the Rams, it's a safe bet that one way or another, Edelman's presence will be felt.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
