UPDATE: Julian Edelman is ACTIVE.
The New England Patriots have Julian Edelman listed as questionable for Saturday’s game against the Buffalo Bills, but you can be forgiven for being more than a little dubious about seeing his name on the injury report — especially in light of Ian Rapoport’s report that he’s expected to play.
The Patriots have had him there almost every week of the season this year. However, he really did look to be less than his full self last week against the Bengals. Just as concerning from a fantasy perspective is his matchup against the Bills this week.
Edelman caught just two balls on five targets last week. He finished the day with just nine yards. For the sake of comparison, he had 294 yards and two touchdown in the three games prior to his last one. And this was against the Bengals ... the Bengals.
That was his worst game of the season. His second worst game of the season came in Week 4, against these very same Bills.
Fantasy football analysis, New England Patriots WR Julian Edelman
While Edelman may be at something less than 100 percent, there’s no reason to think that he still won’t get his targets. He is playing. Another question to ask is how closely the Bills will be covering him. They obviously knew what they were doing last time, but Edelman’s ceiling is just too high to write him off.
The Patriots do have other options at receiver. Mohamed Sanu is one, but he’s been irrelevant in fantasy and it’s not a safe bet that will change this week. N’Keal Harry is a more intriguing option; he managed to score last week and even got two rushes. But it’s tough to justify a roster spot for him at this point.