Clutching his knee after juking his way past the teeth of the Lions defense and limping heavily towards the sidelines, not how Julian Edelman wanted his dress rehearsal for the 2017 regular season to go.  The reliable Julian Edelman who can be found attached to Tom Brady’s hip the majority of the calendar year and one of the most uncoverable wide receivers in the game is feared to have a torn ACL just a couple minutes into a damn preseason game.  The value of the preseason and if it should be abolished is a story for another time but if Julian Edelman is lost for the entire season that is a massive blow to the Patriots, an even bigger loss than losing Rob Gronkowski I believe.

Brady throws an immaculate 4.9 touchdowns per 1 interception when Julian Edelman is playing along side him, but the golden boy becomes below average when Edelman is off the field throwing only 1.7 TDs per INT.  If there was any position that this particular team, this year could lose a player for a significant amount of time where another man would step up it would be from the wide receiver corps.  However… Julian Edelman?  Of all people not Edelman!  There’s a term that gets thrown around when the gameplan isn’t going the way you planned and that’s going to your ‘security blanket’.  For a long time I thought Gronk was that security blanket, and he definitely was for a while, but Edelman has surpassed him as the go-to-guy when you need a crucial conversion or any big play at a given time.  I think back to the game in Denver last year when the Patriots couldn’t get anything going and the resilient Edelman came through with his toughness against one of the best defenses adding in great catches.  And of course speaking of great catches, the greatest reception of all time in the big game belongs to Julian Edelman this past February.  He’s also an incredible blocker for his size laying a massive block on the final play of the 2016-2017 NFL season earning the Patriots a 5th Super Bowl championship.

The depth chart is stacked though:

Chris Hogan, Brandin Cooks, Danny Amendola, Malcolm Mitchell, and now probably Austin Carr making the team if Edelman is placed on IR.  There is a lot of talent at that position but none of those players can do everything Edelman does.  Guys like Rex Burkhead and Dion Lewis will need to step up to the plate in the slot this season in the absence of #11.

19-0 is out of the question without Julian.  He’s just way too important to this squad and accounts for a couple wins by himself.  Brady wins a stunning 82% of the time when Edelman plays compared to a still good but decent drop to 68% when Julian does not play.  The Patriots still have all the talent to be the last team standing especially with the GOATs at head coach and quarterback, but it will be extremely difficult to repeat decades as a dynasty without their 7th round Kent State QB turned best hard nosed slot receiver in the game.