Three-time Super Bowl champion and retired New England Patriots WR Julian Edelman recently said that people shouldn’t be worried about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers star quarterback Tom Brady. Instead, the team should be looking at the interior offensive linemen.
“That’s not the thing they should be worrying about. They should be worrying about those three interior offensive linemen,” said Edelman, according to The Boston Globe’s Ben Volin.
The Buccaneers are relying on 2022 second-round pick Luke Goedeke for the left guard and rookie Robert Hainsey to make his NFL debut at the center. The team had to create a new offensive line after losing linemen to injuries, retirements, and free agency.
While Brady is vital to the team’s performance and has been the start of many comebacks, his time with the Patriots also showcased that consistent pressure up the middle could beat him. The Buccaneer’s offensive linemen will need to step up to relieve pressure from the quarterback despite their relative inexperience.
This isn’t the first time Edelman put his faith in Brady’s performance for an NFL season. The retired player recently disclosed that he placed over $100,000 in bets on the Buccaneers and the Patriots to make it to the Superbowl last season. Both eventually got eliminated, leaving Edelman $100,000 short.
Edelman’s stance on returning to NFL
The 45-year-old Brady briefly retired from the NFL before returning and some fans are curious if Edelman is looking to make a comeback. Though the former WR was initially very against the idea due to the toll the game took on his knees, he recently admitted on the Green Light podcast that he was “trying to figure out” his chances.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. People don’t realize it’s not like, especially when you’re older, you can’t just work out for a week, take a Gatorade shake, take a conditioning test and get ready for (expletive) 18 weeks of football,” said Edelman, as per MSN.
He further emphasized that his commitments are making it difficult for him to settle on a decision, but didn’t rule out a comeback entirely as he was feeling better than ever.
“It’s a huge mind commitment, and you can’t dip your toe in. You’ve got to dive into that thing… My body feels good. There’s some deficiencies here and there, but I feel extremely better than I did the last year-and-a-half of my career. I don’t know if it’s fool’s gold just because I haven’t been compounding loadage,” added Edelman.
“That’s why you get interested, so you kick it up a little bit here and there and you analyze. You don’t make decisions. And that’s what I’m doing.”
He added that if he were to enter the NFL again, he would want to rejoin the Patriots. This is consistent with his prior statements in March where he said he was “a one-team guy” on the Michael Irvin Podcast.
While he isn’t playing anymore, Edelman is still involved in the NFL through podcasts such as the aforementioned Green Light and Pardon My Take, and starred on the Paramount+ show Inside the NFL.