Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman is back on the field after missing all of last season with a torn ACL, but he doesn’t feel back to his old self yet.
Edelman said it has been “a grind” so far this summer as he tries to find his previous form and that he has to do “a lot better” in the coming weeks in order to feel comfortable on the field again.
“I feel like I got to get my legs under me a lot more,” Edelman said in comments distributed by the team. “I don’t have my camp legs, I don’t have football legs and it’s evident out there. You get tired, you create bad habits, you don’t run your routes right and you get yelled at in meetings for it. I’m expecting to do that because I got to pick it up. I wasn’t as good as I want to be today and feeling that’s because I’m not in the best shape right now.”
Taking time to find your way while coming off a serious injury is no surprise. Complicating matters for Edelman is the fact that he’ll spend the rest of this month rounding into form and then leave the team for four weeks while serving his suspension for violating the league’s performance-enhancing substance policy. He’ll need to find a way to either continuing working his way back or maintain the gains he makes over the rest of this month to avoid any similar feelings when his ban comes to an end.