CHAMPS ALWAYS FIND WAY
Even without Edelman, Pats have depth to thrive
So how did you react to the news that Julian Edelman is out for the season with a torn ACL?
To some, the knee-jerk reaction (sorry, too soon?) was to roll back the video tape to the last time the Patriots’ hugely talented, hugely popular receiver went out with a major injury.
The setting: Nov. 15, 2015, the
Pats’ showdown against the Giants at MetLife Stadium, a game in which they were lucky to escape with a 2726 victory thanks to Stephen Gostkowski’s 54-yard field goal with one second remaining in the fourth quarter. But it was a sobering victory because of what happened with one second remaining in the first quarter, when Edelman suffered what later was termed a broken bone in his left foot.
There was a surgical procedure. There was week after week after week of convalescence and rehabilitation, coupled with all kinds of winks and nods, rumors and speculation as to if and when Edelman might return, and if he did, what measure of his old self he’d be.
Things got worse for the Pats. Having already lost Dion Lewis to a torn ACL a week earlier, the dominoes of damage continued to fall: Danny Amendola banged up his knee during the Pats’ 20-13 victory against Buffalo on Nov. 23 and missed the Denver game a week later. The Denver game? Tight end Rob Gronkowski hurt his knee during the Pats’ 30-24 overtime loss to the Broncos on Nov. 29 (their first loss of the season), sat out a game and returned to play against Houston on Dec. 13. The Houston game? Running back LeGarrette Blount was lost for the season with a hip injury.
Not to disrespect anyone with enough talent to have played in the NFL, but it got to the point Brady basically was huddling up with strangers and doing the go-deepand-I’ll-look-for-you schoolyard bit. Keshawn Martin? Michael Williams? Or was it Keshawn Williams and Michael Martin?
Yes, Edelman returned for the playoffs. But the Pats were too banged up, and the Broncs had a defensive backfield up to the task. As the Herald’s Ron Borges noted in his postgame report card, “Neither Julian Edelman nor Danny Amendola could unshackle themselves from Denver’s quick, agile corners.”
Sorry for the long history lesson there, but it’s important: The last time the Patriots lost Edelman for an appreciable amount of time, it cost them. They eventually ran out of depth, and then they ran out of season.
Anyway, Pats fans, that’s how some of you reacted to this latest bad news on the Edelman front.
But just as we have Red States and Blue States, we have Pats Pessimists (not to be confused with Pat Patriot) and we have Pats Optimists.
It’s the Pats Pessimists who view Edelman’s latest injury through the prism of what happened in 2015 and fear this new season is finished before it has begun.
And then there are the Pats Optimists who have the “In Bill We Trust” and “Patriot Way” bumper stickers festooned on the back of their Ford F-150s. They believe the Pats not only will find a way but that they planned for such an injury by loading up on Brady targets, just as they did after the 2006 season when they acquired receivers Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Donte Stallworth.
No, they didn’t anticipate an Edelman ailment. And yes, it’s about as bad a piece of injury news as the Pats could have received — not in that rare Tom Brady air, of course, but pretty serious nonetheless.
But I’m with the Patriot Way crowd on this one. While not convinced the Pats have pushed all the chips to the middle of the table for one last Tom Brady-led Super Bowl run, I do have eyes. And my eyes tell me the Pats have lots of eye candy when it comes to receiving depth.
They still have Gronk. They still have Amendola. They still have Chris Hogan. They have newcomer Brandin Cooks. They have second-year man Malcolm Mitchell, with a lot of people believing this’ll be the year Money Mitch earns it.
The Pats weren’t supposed to win the Super Bowl last season without Gronkowski. They won the Super Bowl last season without Gronkowski.
And so it’ll be this year without Edelman. It’ll be harder, and it won’t be as much fun, but the Pats have the depth.
The rest of the NFL hates to hear this, but give the Pats their due: That they always have a Plan B isn’t just another bumper sticker.