It Looks Like Julian Edelman Will Return Punts In First Game Back With Patriots
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
FOXBORO (CBS) -- It's been known all day that Thursday night was set up to be the reunion of Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman sharing the field, but the list of Patriots inactives prior to the game showed that even more may be expected out of the receiver vs. the Colts.
Among the seven inactive Patriots was cornerback Cyrus Jones. This is noteworthy because the Patriots re-signed Jones off the Ravens' practice squad prior to their Week 4 game vs. the Dolphins, and the Patriots employed Jones as their punt returner. Jones played well in that role, returning one punt for a career-high 24 yards.
Nevertheless, Jones finds himself as a spectator for the game vs. the Colts, which presumably leaves Edelman as the Patriots' punt returner for the game. The activation of Edelman coincided with the release of Kenjon Barner, who was one of the few Patriots with punt return experience.
The duties could still fall on another player, like Patrick Chung, Chris Hogan, or a Bill Belichick wild card (Nate Ebner, anybody?). But with 157 regular-season punt returns, plus another 29 playoff punt returns, Edelman figures to play double-duty in his first real game since Super Bowl LI.
Here are the inactives for both the Colts and Patriots:
PATRIOTS
OL Cole Croston
OL Ted Karras
CB Eric Rowe
CB Cyrus Jones
DL Geneo Grissom
DE Derek Rivers
DL Keionta Davis
COLTS
WR T.Y. hilton
CB Kenny Moore
RB Marlon Mack
CB Quincy Wilson
T/G Denzelle Good
TE Jack Doyle
DT Hassan Ridgeway