The New England Patriots’ smallest wide receiver is leaving behind some pretty big shoes to fill.
Julian Edelman will be out six to eight weeks after having a screw inserted into his foot to repair a fracture, and you’d expect someone to have to step up and take his place as the team’s most productive wide receiver. But Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said that’s an impossible task.
“I think it’s important to understand that there’s nobody that’s going to go in and just take Julian’s place, including (wide receiver) Danny (Amendola),” McDaniels told reporters Tuesday. “Danny’s role is going to be filled with things we feel good about Danny doing, and then there might be some other people who are going to need to do some things that maybe we haven’t asked a whole lot of them as well.
“So I think that all our players, Danny included, would understand and respect the opportunity to go in there and maybe carry and handle a little extra burden, but any time that you incur an injury to a player as versatile as Julian or (running back) Dion (Lewis), it’s never going to be one person’s responsibility to go in there and make up for that production.”
Head coach Bill Belichick echoed McDaniels’ sentiments.
“I mean, you just can’t (replace a single player).” Belichick said. “They’ve been out there taking a lot of snaps, a lot of reps and getting that timing and that execution right, and the other person just hasn’t been able to do it. That’s an element of it that we’re going to have to try to obviously work on.”
The Patriots hope to have Edelman back by the playoffs, but until then, they have a tall task in front of them.
Thumbnail photo via Erich Schlegel/USA TODAY Sports Images
