Report: Patriots Made Official Decision On Julian Edelman’s Future With Team

Patriots receiver Julian Edelman and the team has agreed to a multi-year contract extension. Edelman will stay with the Patriots for the remainder of his career, as confirmed by Mike Garofolo of the NFL Network.

Edelman will turn 33 on Wednesday, and the team had the perfect surprise for the receiver.

Tom Brady likes his skills on the field, and head coach Bill Belichick knew that Edelman will be this great.

“I’ve got to give [sportswriter] Rick Gosselin credit on that one for getting us started,” Bill Belichick said after Super Bowl LIII of how Edelman got his attention. “I talked to Rick — as you know, Rick followed the draft very closely — and at one point, he said to me, ‘A kid you might want to take a look at is this quarterback out of Kent State. I don’t think he can play quarterback, but I’ve heard he’s a pretty good player.’

“So we kind of got going on him a little bit, and we were like, OK, what would we do with Julian? Is he a receiver? Is he a punt returner? Is he a defensive back? Is he maybe a guy that just can play multiple positions in the kicking game? So we went out and worked him out — how many times did we work you out? Two? So we sent one coach up there. And then we were like, well alright, let’s send someone else up there, because we weren’t really sure what to do with him. So, as it turned out, he came to the Patriots [as a seventh-round draft pick in 2009] and caught passes, which he hadn’t done before; returned kicks, which he hadn’t done before; and played defense, which he hadn’t done before; in addition to cover kicks and all the other things in special teams.

“Nobody has worked harder in my career than Julian to develop his skills and his craft in a position — other than, I’d say, Steve Neal — other than Julian, because he really didn’t have any background in it. We put him on defense and put him against good players in the slot, and obviously, he’s excelled as a receiver for a player that had no real college background doing that.”