Catching up with Julian Edelman at Patriots practice
BOSTON -- For the third straight summer, the New England Patriots are toiling away on the practice fields without Julian Edelman.
Edelman retired in the spring of 2021 after spending his entire NFL career with the Patriots, where he went from unknown seventh-round quarterback-turned-receiver out of Kent State to franchise icon, three-time Super Bowl champion and Super Bowl MVP.
That type of resume gives Edelman a lifetime ticket to Gillette Stadium, and he was present on Thursday as a guest at the Patriots' training camp practice. The 37-year-old spoke with some local media members after practice and touched on a variety of topics.
Whether he gets the itch to play ...
"Yeah, of course you do. Of course you get the itch. I mean, you know, I'm a football player. You love football. Especially when you get to see a group of guys that are coming together and working hard, I mean, it's not too hot today and the practice wasn't too long. It's a little different from when I was playing, but it's still football, so you definitely miss it."
What it's like being back in Foxboro ...
"It's awesome. When you leave the game, as much as you hated training camp and practicing hard, you miss it. And you get out here and see this stage of what the team is doing in training camp, this is when the team comes together. I've been in a lot of the roles of all these guys, guys that are trying to make the team, guys that are trying to make a role, guys who are trying to go above and beyond. And this is an exciting time of the year -- guys being evaluated. Like this is where the team's made. And it's always good to come out here and get an inside look and see what's being done here."
What he's seen from Mac Jones ...
"I've seen all good things. I mean, what people don't realize, in this part of training camp, it's not always drawn up to look like it should be a great play. A lot of times they're testing guys, and the defense has multiple different looks, and the offense isn't game-planning for certain looks. So you go in for controlled chaos. You kind of want to see how guys react to certain looks and things. So it's pretty good. And I'm excited to see him continue to work with Billy [O'Brien]."
His message to Malik Cunningham, who's trying to convert from college QB to pro receiver ...
"I mean, I haven't really talked to him. I think I saw him at OTAs. And like I tell a lot of these young guys, what I learned at a young age from Scott O'Brien -- who was a special teams guru -- he said there's gonna be good plays and bad plays, but with every play, there's a bit of experience that you gain. So the guys that can digest that bad play, and learn from that experience, it helps them. So I just kind of explained that to young guys. And mistakes are gonna be made all the time. You just can't make the same mistake twice. That's how you get replaced. And it's tough and this is a tough time of the year for a lot of these guys. They're going out there, they're being evaluated, every single thing. The guys that are trying to make the team, like I said they're on special teams, then they're running to meetings. This is a fun time of the year but it's also a very stressful time of the year for a lot of these guys."
Whether the current offense looks familiar to the offenses he was a part of in New England ...
"Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of similarities, but every coach has a new wrinkle each and every year that they're trying to work on that they learned in the offseason. And a lot of this is probably they're learning to see what their team's good at. You know, you throw a bunch of stuff out there, you throw a bunch of plays out there, you see what you do well, you see what you don't do well, you build off the things you do well, and you kind of scrap the things that you know that aren't probably going to work. So that's what this process is right now. They're evaluating themselves. They're trying to see what they're going to be and going from there that when they start playing against teams, then you get into that whole game-plan type scenario where you start getting a little, like pregame operation-type skills and learning those. So it's still very early."
What he's up to these days ...
"I'm doing good. I'm doing the whole media thing. I'm [in front of] the camera like you guys a lot now and did 'Inside The NFL' for the last two years. That was on Paramount and Showtime, which is an unbelievable experience and gives me a whole lot of perspective about what you guys do and respect for what you guys do. I got something coming up here in the next few weeks that we'll be announcing. I got my podcast, 'Games With Names,' which has been awesome. It's been fun getting to go out and interview players that played in historic games, and we had Peyton Manning and Michael Vick, Ricky Williams, Eli Manning -- my favorite Manning of course. But you never know, I heard Cooper Manning is a pretty good Manning. I gotta check him out. We'll see. But, you know, I'm doing that and I'm being a dad. I'm around my child a lot more. There's a lot of sacrifice when it comes to being a professional athlete and once you're done, you're not a mercenary anymore. And you get to make up for all that, those missed birthdays, those missed experiences, graduations, all those types of things, I'm getting to experience that now. So it's fun. It's been awesome."
If he sent any special message to Tom Brady on his 46th birthday ...
"I haven't even talked to him. I think he's on a safari. I think he's on a safari and, I think he sent me a wild squirrel video. It was weird."