Julian Edelman must step up in Patriots’ offense, and Josh McDaniels knows it
Flashing back to Week 2 — Julian Edelman was on pace for a record season.
The 34-year-old had five catches for 57 yards his first game of the season and then a record-setting eight catches for 179 yards against the Seattle Seahawks the following week. It appeared that Cam Newton and Edelman found a connection that maybe wasn’t even prevalent with Tom Brady.
Fast-forwarding to the next three weeks, Edelman collected seven receptions for 66 yards. He has a league-high 11 dropped passes and was only targeted six times each of those three games. Damiere Byrd earned more targets and N’Keal Harry seems to be a better fit within Newton’s offense now.
Edelman’s playing time has dropped and that could either be due to his age or the compiled injuries over his career. Regardless, the Patrtios need him on the field in order to break out of this 2-3 record they carry currently.
Josh McDaniels briefly touched on the topic during his Tuesday press conference.
“Certainly, Julian’s always a big part of what we want to try to do, and I need to do a good job of trying to get him going,” McDaniels said. “But I think in the grand scheme of things, all of us need to do our jobs well and try to get contributions from everybody to be the most effective we can be.”
New England’s passing attack is ranked No. 25 in the league and they don’t seem to be trending upward. The Patriots desperately need an elite pass-catcher, but Newton believes the answers are in the locker room.
The Patriots play the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday and they better hope to bring some offense against one of the league’s best defenses.
