Edelman, Edelman, he's Belichick's man, if he can't do it, no one can!
OK, that was unnecessary, and we apologize for the earworm you'll have to deal with the rest of the day. However, it's so easy to root for Julian Edelman. It's like rooting for Rudy -- except Edelman is doing so much as the Patriots' utilityman.
Wide receiver, kick returner and now defensive back -- the 5-foot-10, 195-pound Edelman does whatever's asked of him.
"Julian's worked hard on that," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said, according to the Boston Herald. "He's had to keep up with what's going on on offense and also in the kicking game, but he's worked hard. He's spent a lot of extra time with (defensive backs coach) Josh Boyer and kind of splitting time between meetings between offense and defense, and of course he does all the special-teams stuff, too. He's worked hard, and he's really been a huge help for us."
That was the case again during Sunday's 38-20 victory over the Eagles, as Edelman, who played in dime packages, finished with three tackles and a memorable hit that flipped quarterback Vince Young on his head. We certainly loved it and believe NFL vice president of football operations Ray Anderson ought to use Edelman's hit in a new instructional video on how to execute a clean, hard hit.
"It's funny because with all the rules floating around with regards to quarterbacks, I wanted to hit him but do it right," Edelman said. "I just did not want to get any kind of penalty and hit him in the right zone."
Two plays from Edelman -- the other a heck of an open-field tackle on a scrambling Young that might have saved a touchdown -- stood out Sunday.
Seriously, kudos to Edelman for adapting to the situation. You might recall that this used to be Troy Brown's role back in the day when New England's secondary got thin. We'd like to think somewhere right now that Brown, like us, is happy with what he's seen.
