Julian Edelman Talks Patriots, Tom Brady, Drake Maye and More in B/R Interview

The 2024 New England Patriots are a far cry from the dynasty version of the franchise that won six Super Bowls and reached three more from 2001 through 2018.

After all, they are rebuilding with first-year head coach Jerod Mayo following in the footsteps of the legendary Bill Belichick and largely using veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett as a temporary placeholder for rookie Drake Maye.

But that doesn't mean this season is a lost cause.

Just ask one of the key members of that Patriots dynasty.

"You have to tip your cap to Jerod," Julian Edelman told Bleacher Report. "This is a hard situation for anyone to follow arguably the greatest head coach of all time. And it's not following a head coach with a stacked team with a lot of pieces in place. They have a depleted offensive line, they have a lot of things they need to work on.

"Their defense is still playing well, and they shocked the world with the Week 1 win against Cincinnati. But they're just lacking certain things. They can take this season and each one of these games for these position groups for the future to see who they can rely on. This is an opportunity for guys who may not have that many reps to have a rep to go out there and build depth going into the future."

At some point, much of the focus will be on that future.

While Brissett has completed 60.4 percent of his passes for 536 yards, two touchdowns and one interception through the first four games and helped New England stun the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1 before taking the Seattle Seahawks to overtime in Week 2, the AFC East team is coming off two straight blowout losses to the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers.

Eventually, Maye figures to get an opportunity as the No. 3 overall pick of the draft and the franchise quarterback, although Edelman believes New England is taking the right approach with its patience.

"When it comes to the quarterback situation, I think Jacoby is doing a great job," he said. "He's teaching Drake Maye, just through his example, daily and I'm sure minutely. How he talks to the offensive coordinator after a meeting and how he handles the huddle after he just got sacked. All these intricacies you have to learn at the quarterback position. Being able to communicate a personnel group and a play call and break a huddle, identify the defensive line, identify the coverage, identify if all your receivers are set. … There's a lot of intricacies and operational skills that aren't set just like that for young players. When he has to think about that, it doesn't allow the player to use his athleticism and what he's special for.

"I feel like the time will be right when Drake Maye can go and practice and create confidence for his team that he can actually go and do it. Jacoby is a great person for him to learn from. … This is a learning experience for everyone."

In a perfect world, the learning experiences of this year will lead to more success in the future.

But even the most optimistic Patriots fans understand the success likely won't match that of Edelman's career. He played 12 seasons in New England from 2009 to 2020 and won three Super Bowls, including when he was the Super Bowl LIII MVP during a win over the Los Angeles Rams with 10 catches for 141 yards.

Of course, it helps having Tom Brady as your quarterback when you're chasing Lombardi Trophies.

The legendary signal-caller is starting a different chapter this season, though, as a member of the Fox broadcast booth. He is working with play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt and reporters Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi and has been met with mixed reviews in the early going as he grows accustomed to his new role.

But Edelman, who is no stranger to media with his own work for Fox NFL Kickoff and Games with Names podcast, believes it will only get better for his former teammate.

"I think he's doing good," Edelman said. "If you look at it, he's gotten better and better each week, and he's calling games that are blowouts. His best assets are going to be talking about when it's a close game in the fourth quarter. I'm excited for him. I know exactly how he is. And he's definitely preparing more and more. And you can see him getting more and more comfortable with it. He's finding his own way.

"I didn't have that much advice for him. I just said every rep's a rep. Every time you get to go on, you get to learn from it. I learned that from him, so I just gave him his own advice."

Edelman recently reunited with Brady and former teammate Rob Gronkowski as part of Tostitos' "you can't have football without Tostitos" campaign. The Patriots legends appeared in a series of humorous commercials that coincided with the start of a new season.

"It was so fun," Edelman said. "I haven't worked with those guys in a few years now, but we get back on set and go and do our work and get the time in between scenes. It just felt so normal and so fun. It's honestly very motivating to be around Tom and Rob because of how professional they are. Everyone's got this schtick that Gronk is this certain way, but he's such a hard-working dude and uses his time very well. And Tom is No. 1 at that. It's always a great reminder of how to be a great human when you're around those guys."

He took the partnership beyond the commercials and worked with Tostitos for its new Salsa Cereal campaign that asks fans to eat their chips and salsa much like cereal and milk.

What started as a social-media trend now has Edelman helping promote Tostitos Salsa Cereal kits that fans can win by entering the sweepstakes. Those who want to eat the snack as intended have to follow the simple steps of crushing Tostitos chips into a cereal bowl, adding salsa and mixing it together.

"What better way to partner with the biggest chips, dip and salsa company in the world and try to make this thing pop off," Edelman said. "I partnered up with Tostitos to do this, you've gotta go on my Instagram or Tostitos' Instagram to see the content.

"You think to yourself, 'why would I eat chips and salsa like cereal?' Well, you can't watch football without Tostitos. Have you ever had those scoops chips and you sit there and put it in the salsa and you're taking your eyes off the screen? When you have salsa cereal, you're right there locked in. So it's a match made in heaven."

Edelman has enjoyed the snack while watching the future of his position this season.

There aren't many people better equipped to evaluate a highly regarded wide receiver group than the Patriots legend who maximized his talent as a champion and playmaker with three different seasons of more than 1,000 receiving yards, and he recognized this year's rookie group as a special one.

Marvin Harrison Jr. of the Arizona Cardinals, Malik Nabers of the New York Giants, Rome Odunze of the Chicago Bears, Brian Thomas Jr. of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Xavier Worthy of the Kansas City Chiefs, Keon Coleman of the Buffalo Bills and Ladd McConkey of the Los Angeles Chargers have already established themselves as important options in their respective offenses, and there is plenty of potential star power in place.

"Malik Nabers looks pretty special," Edelman said. "He's just athletic and he reminds me a lot of Odell [Beckham Jr.] back in the day. Marvin Harrison looks like a pro. He's just a professional. He's going to run the right route and always be in the right area. He started off a little slow but then we saw that improvement.

"It's really early to give grades to receivers. As long as guys are continuing to improve week-to-week. You see a mistake they made, if they don't do the same the next week, that's growth. That's all we're looking for. It's a really exciting group."

New England fans may not like to hear it, but Coleman is part of one of Edelman's favorite storylines of the 2024 campaign in Buffalo.

While there were some question marks surrounding the Bills coming into the season following the loss of Stefon Diggs, they once again look like serious contenders at 3-1 even after a loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

Josh Allen is an early MVP candidate who has completed 69.3 percent of his passes for 814 yards, seven touchdowns and zero interceptions while adding 106 yards and two scores on the ground, and playmakers such as Khalil Shakir, Dalton Kincaid, Coleman and James Cook have helped make up for Diggs' departure.

"I'm really excited about these Buffalo Bills," Edelman said. "There were the headlines that they lost Diggs and they're not going to have anyone to throw to. What's that do? It gives Shakir, it gives Kincaid, it gives all these other guys opportunities to get on the same page with Josh Allen without Josh Allen feeling like he has to throw somewhere. I think this is the best they've looked with Josh playing so calm, cool and collected, especially since he's not feeling like he has to be the guy all the time. I love what they're doing over there."

If nothing else, the Bills can provide something of a blueprint for the Patriots as they look to reestablish themselves as AFC East contenders in the future.