New England Patriots' Icon Julian Edelman on Bill Belichick: 'He Needs Help!'
A sign of the sad times for the New England Patriots: The last receiver "hit" in the NFL Draft by Bill Belichick believes future the Hall-of-Fame coach needs a fresh set of eyes to assist in talent evaluation.
"I think he needs a little help on the offensive side," says Julian Edelman, the Patriots' icon who won three rings under Belichick and was the MVP of Super Bowl LIII. "We have whiffed on a lot of offensive skill-position players. These are painful days for the Patriots."
As the national narrative about Belichick's job status intensifies in the wake of consecutive embarrassing losses by a combined 72-3, Edelman said on FS1 with Colin Cowherd Monday afternoon that the blame shouldn't solely rest on quarterback Mac Jones but also a sub-par receiving corps.
"This receiver group is not getting open ... there's just no separation," Edelman said. "I've been hard on Mac, but the receivers need to get out of their funk."
Julian Edelman is questioning the draft prowess of his former Patriots coach Bill Belichick
Boston Herald
With the jury still out on Jones and running back Rhamondre Stevenson, it can argued that the last "great" offensive skill-position player drafted by Belichick was running back James White in 2014. But there's no debating the colossal mistakes made in selecting receivers.
The poster boy for the failure is N'Keal Harry, who in 2019 was taken in the first round ahead of current stars Deebo Samuel (49ers) and DK Metcalf (Seahawks). Before him came mid-round busts such as Brandon Tate (2009), Taylor Price (2010), Aaron Dobson and Josh Boyce (2013) and Malcolm Mitchell (2016).
Belichick sort of stumbled into Edelman, whom he drafted in the 7th round in 2009 as quarterback out of tiny Kent State.
"A lot of the receivers we drafted would show up at training camp and we'd be like 'I don't see it'," said Edelman, who is an NFL analyst at Fox. "And I'm still shook by the Jakobi Meyers departure."
Belichick last year drafted receiver Tyquan Thornton 50th overall. While injuries have limited him to playing in only 13 of a possible 22 games, the Steelers' George Pickens (taken two spots later) is an emerging star with 74 catches and six touchdowns in Pittsburgh.
And last offseason Belichick let Meyers walk to the Las Vegas Raiders (this week's opponent) and replaced him in free agency with JuJu Smith-Schuster. In three games, Meyers has 18 catches for 199 yards and two touchdowns, while JuJu in five starts has managed only 14 catches for 86 yards and no scores.
How does a team with six Super Bowls deteriorate into the league's laughingstock? In the last 10 years, Belichick has drafted only two Patriots that blossomed into All-Pros in New England: punter Jake Bailey (2020) and kick-returner Marcus Jones (2022).
