Julian Edelman held little back Friday when talking about the much-maligned Patriots offense.
During a great interview on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show,” Edelman admitted to being “concerned” about nearly every aspect of New England’s offense. He openly wondered how the loss of Josh McDaniels could negatively impact Mac Jones and offered a harsh review of what he saw while attending a joint practice with the Las Vegas Raiders last month. “It didn’t look great,” he said, ” … It looked like (the Patriots) didn’t have any juice.”
Edelman also aligned himself with Patriots fans on the offseason’s top controversy: Matt Patricia seemingly replacing McDaniels as the offensive play-caller. The Patriots legend believes Patricia, Bill Belichick and Joe Judge will collaborate to lead the offense, but also believes the entire situation could be a problem.
“I never been in this situation,” Edelman said on WEEI. “So, this is a new situation for me to even put myself in because I’ve never heard of that. This is a little alarming when you hear a defensive coach is going to be calling plays or special teams coordinator, head coaches calling plays. That’s a little alarming. But if anyone can get this and do this is Bill Belichick.”
Edelman also believes that Belichick could use the criticism surrounding the Patriots to motivate both himself and his players.
“I think this has kind of fired him up, probably,” he said. “This is a new challenge for Coach Belichick. He’s a competitor. He’s probably sitting, like, ‘F everyone for talking about this. Screw these people. They don’t know what they are.’
“You know how Bill is when he gets in that in that auditorium. No one knows anything but the men in this room. And that’s what they’re gonna go with.”
We’ll just how much juice the Patriots offense has when they visit the Miami Dolphins on Sunday for their season opener. Kickoff from Hard Rock Stadium is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET.
