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| Source: Nick Laham/Getty Images North America |
I've mentioned this before but it bears repeating, Julian Edelman has been one of my favorite Patriots players for a few reasons. To start, he embodies the "do your job" mantra of Belichick, no more evident than this past year when he channeled his inner Troy Brown and made significant contributions in all three phases of the game: offense (wide receiver), defense (slot cornerback), and special teams (punt returner). But what really does it for me, is his complete immersion into the other Boston sports. ESPNBoston's Patriots page has a twitter feed with several players, including Edelman, and I am always pleasantly surprised with how genuinely interested he is the other teams.
Now his love of the other Boston sports teams has absolutely nothing to do with his contract situation, but his embodiment of Belichick's mantra does. Edelman has not particularly impressed as a receiver, 11 receptions for 120 yards over the past two years, after his promising rookie season, 37 receptions for 359 yards. This is mostly due to two factors: he is backing up the best slot receiver in football, Wes Welker, who has shown to be incredibly durable considering the vicious hits he takes in the middle of the field; and after his rookie season the Patriots drafted two tight ends, Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, whose significant play in the slot have limited Edelman's ability to get on the field. This past season he only played 13.3% of the offensive snaps, according to Mike Reiss of ESPN. Even though his statistics are not impressive, Welker's contract situation is still up in the air and it is definitely beneficial having someone on the team who Brady trusts and has shown he can step into Welker's shoes and fill them out nicely (see playoff game versus the Ravens in 2009).
Edelman took over returning punts from Welker in 2010 and since then he has been slightly above average; he ranked 13th in the league this past season with an average of 10.3 yards per return, and took one to the house against Kansas City. He doesn't make special teams units afraid like Devin Hester, but he is a solid contributor.
Finally, if all goes well Edelman should never take another snap on defense. Even after Troy Brown's impressive stint at defensive back in the 2004 championship season, he was not called upon again. Still this does add to his value slightly in that it proves he is a team player and, although this sounds cliche, he is a "football player." By that I mean he loves the game and will do anything that is asked of him, a trait the Patriots covet.
Proposed Contract: $3.7M/3 years, $800k guaranteed
This contract is fairly similar to the one just offered to Matthew Slater. Slater's is a bit higher, but I gave him that nod as he is the captain of the special teams unit and is one of the best special teams coverage players in the NFL (3rd in special teams tackles). Edelman does many things above average, but nothing outstanding. He is not irreplaceable, but he provides definite value, including leverage against Welker. This is cap friendly deal for the Patriots as his cap hit is never larger than $1.4M, yet Edelman makes more than twice what he has over the past four years.
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