2016 Edelman Thread: Shaky Footings

[CoffeeNerdness]

Didn't see this anywhere on the board (surprising) but I thought it was worth a thread. Given his history of foot problems and that it's a mid-week add to the injury report has me a bit concerned. Reiss followed up the initial Tweet saying he "Looked great" in the 10 minutes the media had access to practice, so hopefully this is just a minor thing.

 

[Super Nomario]

Didn't see this anywhere on the board (surprising) but I thought it was worth a thread. Given his history of foot problems and that it's a mid-week add to the injury report has me a bit concerned. Reiss followed up the initial Tweet saying he "Looked great" in the 10 minutes the media had access to practice, so hopefully this is just a minor thing.

Media portion of practice is early in the day, right? He could have hurt it in practice yesterday.

 

[mauf]

I'm limping around with a minor foot injury myself. That doesn't give me any special insight, but I can imagine even a very minor foot injury being something where it's better to stay off it and miss practice reps, whereas you might make a different decision if it were an injury to a part of the body that is more easily protectable.

 

[cheekydave]

Hoping his minor foot injury, doesnt lead to a torn groin, sore back, or the like. The weak link in the chain sends shockwaves thri the rest of the chain.

 

[amarshal2]

Fairly binary outcome here most likely....

...And he's practicing. So, NBD.

 

[tims4wins]

Can we talk about Edelman a little it? He already has a bunch of fumbles, although I can't find the fumble stats for punt returns. His YPC is down to 8.7. He doesn't appear to have that same burst as before.

Is this a case of needing a year to fully recover, and he will be back to 100% in 2017? Or is this the "new normal"? Or is his YPC simply a function of Hogan / Gronk / Bennett running more vertical routes?

Edumacate me.

 

[Van Everyman]

Wasn't it reported that he was in the X-ray room after last week's game? Seems to me he is still battling this injury.

 

[Valek123]

Frankly I'd shut him down if that foot is still bothering him until after the BYE Week at least. Good chance to get 2 weeks of healing until the sunday night game vs Seattle. I think the injury is still bothering him a bit.

 

[Ed Hillel]

I will take the 60 yards and fantastic blocking on the field if he isn't at risk of further injury. He's not 100%, but he's still providing value. The fumble and drop were fluky and unrelated to the injury.

 

[lexrageorge]

Can we talk about Edelman a little it? He already has a bunch of fumbles, although I can't find the fumble stats for punt returns. His YPC is down to 8.7. He doesn't appear to have that same burst as before.

Is this a case of needing a year to fully recover, and he will be back to 100% in 2017? Or is this the "new normal"? Or is his YPC simply a function of Hogan / Gronk / Bennett running more vertical routes?

Edumacate me.

Edelman has 2 fumbles this year, including special teams, so not sure what you mean by "a bunch".

The YPC is perhaps supressed a bit based on the game plan; he was given the duty to run those short routes in the middle against the Steelers. His YPC was much higher his first 3 games. Then there was the Buffalo game, which I'm ignoring for obvious reasons. 3 of his 5 completions against the Browns were for first downs, but he was very quiet in the 2nd half. Against the Bengals, 3 of 4 catches went for first downs. Yesterday, it was only 3 out of 9 catches, but he caught 9 of 10 balls thrown his way. His catch % this season is at his career average, which is a good sign.

Hard to tell if all of this is random noise, result of the game plan, or the game plan adjusting to accommodate Edelman's being limited by his foot.

 

[Stitch01]

He looks to me like he's not quite as quick/elusive, but what do I know, might just be a function of what he's done in the offense so far.

Edelman has always been a bit of a fumbler. 6 and 5 fumbles in his two years as a full time/full year player in '13 and '14 (for reference, Ridley fumbled 4 times each in '12 and '13) We haven't noticed much because his/the team's recovery rate on his fumbles was absurdly high in those two seasons, IIRC the year he fumbled 6 times he recovered all 6. So Im not really concerned about the fumbles in the sense that its always been part of the Edelman package.

 

[Erik Hanson's Hook]

I love the way the team is playing, and am not trying to be negative, but it's interesting that people are surprised about Edelman's drop in production.

There's really no mystery here. He's 30 years old, has had two major foot injuries, and has taken a ton of hits. We saw the dropsies with Welker as he aged. He's just gettin' older, plain and simple. Plus, he has that Dion Lewis-type running style, with all the jump cuts and stuff that invite extra or late hits.

This is who he is now. Still a productive player, but the old Jules is gone and is not coming back. We can still win with this version, though.

 

[Toe Nash]

He looks to me like he's not quite as quick/elusive, but what do I know, might just be a function of what he's done in the offense so far.

Edelman has always been a bit of a fumbler. 6 and 5 fumbles in his two years as a full time/full year player in '13 and '14 (for reference, Ridley fumbled 4 times each in '12 and '13) We haven't noticed much because his/the team's recovery rate on his fumbles was absurdly high in those two seasons, IIRC the year he fumbled 6 times he recovered all 6. So Im not really concerned about the fumbles in the sense that its always been part of the Edelman package.

It looks like 11 of his 18 career fumbles and 5 of 6 in 2013 were on punt returns. If memeory serves, a lot of those were just muffing the catch and then falling on it or picking it up.

http://www.nfl.com/player/julianedelman/238498/careerstats

Muffed punts are easy to recover as long as the defender isn't right there (and if he's right there, Edelman is usually smart about calling for a fair catch). I don't recall a huge number of fumbles off receptions.

 

[Stitch01]

If my memory serves correct not many of them were just muffing the catch without defenders around him, but I'll do a deeper dive on game longs/nfl game pass when I have more time. Most of them were on returns, but I think they were like the fumble we saw on the return yesterday where he was running in traffic.

 

[Toe Nash]

That would be interesting to see. Thanks.

More to the point of the thread, I agree with Eric Hanson's Hook that no, he's probably not going to be a 10-catch-per-game horse anymore, but that's probably fine given the other options. I do think they were hoping Cyrus Jones could take the return load off him, but maybe he still can given some time.

 

[tims4wins]

Edelman has 2 fumbles this year, including special teams, so not sure what you mean by "a bunch".

The YPC is perhaps supressed a bit based on the game plan; he was given the duty to run those short routes in the middle against the Steelers. His YPC was much higher his first 3 games. Then there was the Buffalo game, which I'm ignoring for obvious reasons. 3 of his 5 completions against the Browns were for first downs, but he was very quiet in the 2nd half. Against the Bengals, 3 of 4 catches went for first downs. Yesterday, it was only 3 out of 9 catches, but he caught 9 of 10 balls thrown his way. His catch % this season is at his career average, which is a good sign.

Hard to tell if all of this is random noise, result of the game plan, or the game plan adjusting to accommodate Edelman's being limited by his foot.

Good post, thanks. I agree about the YPC, although I do think he is lacking a little bit of that elusiveness / quickness. On the fumbles, I could have sworn he had more than 2 this year.

 

[Stitch01]

His YAC is down materially, 3.1 per catch per ESPN vs. high 4's to low 5's in prior seasons. Somewhat deceptive in some ways, the long TD against the Bills counts and that number looks much different, but that stat foots with what looks to me as a little less elusiveness and Edelman as more of a get the yards that are there functional receiver rather than a guy who gets extra yards or makes players miss. Trying to track down yards after contact stats but havent found a great source so far.

 

[mwonow]

His YAC is down materially, 3.1 per catch per ESPN vs. high 4's to low 5's in prior seasons. Somewhat deceptive in some ways, the long TD against the Bills counts and that number looks much different, but that stat foots with what looks to me as a little less elusiveness and Edelman as more of a get the yards that are there functional receiver rather than a guy who gets extra yards or makes players miss. Trying to track down yards after contact stats but havent found a great source so far.

Thanks, I was wondering about YAC, and this squares with what I've been seeing as well: Jules is a comfortable outlet for TB in the quick release offense, but he doesn't seem to make anyone miss any more.

 

[tims4wins]

Phil Perry ‏@PhilAPerry 2m2 minutes ago


Chris Long wearing a Julian Edelman mask, calling everyone "bruh."