Julian Edelman has missed a few practices over the last few weeks, but it does not appear he's dealing with any sort of injury.
It seems he's been given some "rest" days, which is definitely unusual for anyone playing for Bill Belichick and the Patriots.
"I've been playing here, this is my 12th year, this is the first time I've really done this," he said via video conference Tuesday.
Edelman was asked for a specific reason for the days off, but he didn't want to go there.
"We don't talk about health here. I don't even know if I can," he said. "So, I don't want to, you know -- we don't talk about that."
The veteran admitted this training camp has been a grind without joint practices and preseason games, so the teams that handle it the best will be the one's in the best shape come the first week of the season.
"I think you know you're ready is through how you feel after you compound days and days and weeks and weeks of good practicing and good habits," he said. "That's when you usually put yourself in the best situation, the best feeling to go in feeling ready. That's what I think on that. Just continually trying to stack good practices and good prep together. It's a different experience. We haven't gotten to go out and play anyone.
"Honestly, this has been a grind. We've been having 6 day (in a row) practices -- or, usually you'd have 4 days off, or 4 days on, a day off, you break up when you start playing other teams in the preseason. This has been a straight grind the whole time. The teams that take advantage of it, and really use it to the best of their abilities, are going to be the teams that do well with it."
The 34-year-old will enter the year as the Patriots' No. 1 wide receiver.
