FOXBORO -- It looks like the Patriots will be without Julian Edelman for the first four games of the 2018 season after he was reportedly suspended for violating the NFL's performance-enhancing substance policy.
This obviously impacts the entire team, and those impacts start now, this summer.
Besides Edelman, the Patriots have Chris Hogan, Kenny Britt, Malcolm Mitchell, Jordan Matthews, Cordarrelle Patterson, Phillip Dorsett, Riley McCarron, Braxton Berrios and Cody Hollister on the wide receivers depth chart, which should be a little alarming as there are a lot of question marks with all of them. Edelman was the one guy Tom Brady could count on and now they need several other wide outs to step up.
Keep in mind the team lost Brandin Cooks and Danny Amendola this offseason.
Over the past several seasons, Brady has trusted Edelman and Amendola the most at the receiver position, and now he won't have either of them for the first four games of 2018.
Hogan seems to be at the top of the list of receivers to step up, but he hasn't looked the same since suffering a shoulder injury last season. It's worth noting, he's had a tough spring to this point. Mitchell is another player who has great potential to fill the void, but he can't stay on the field. After being pictured in team photos following the first OTA session, he hasn't been spotted on the field since. It was worth noting he was on the lower grass field rehabbing Thursday, which hadn't occurred to this point. This comes after missing all of last season with a knee injury.
Besides those two, it's on players relatively new to the system.
Britt has impressed so far this spring, but reportedly suffered a hamstring injury Tuesday causing him to miss the last two minicamp sessions. Dorsett, Matthews and Patterson have shown flashes, but it's hard to tell how they fit with limited reps with Brady. McCarron, Berrios and Hollister are wild cards, especially since they are so young.
Bottom line, without Edelman there's a lot of unknown at the receiver position.
This puts even more emphasis on Brady getting on the same page as some of his new receivers. The quarterback missed the first seven weeks of the voluntary workouts this offseason, only attending mandatory minicamp this week, and it doesn't seem like he will be in attendance next week for the final week of OTAs, either.
"We're not even though today yet," Brady said when asked about it. "We had a good three days and have been working on some things that we need to work on. That is what I always focus on."
Following the Edelman news, it would probably be in Brady's best interest to be at the sessions to get as much work in with his new receivers as he can before the real work begins at training camp at the end of July.
There's now increased pressure on the receivers to step up in Edelman's absence and also to get on the same page as Brady in a shorter period of time than normal.
