The time has come for Julian Edelman. The former Patriots wide receiver has officially retired from the NFL after spending 11 seasons with the team according to his Twitter. He was released from the Patriots earlier today because of a failed physical according to Ian Rapoport. Edelman is coming off one of his most disappointing seasons of his career. He had just 21 catches for 315 yards and no scores. Edelman has always been a team first player during his time with the Patriots. He is a three-time Super Bowl champion, and he won Super Bowl MVP in Super Bowl LIII against the Los Angeles Rams. In that game, he had ten catches for 141 yards in a 13-3 slugfest.
For his career, he had 620 catches for 6,822 yards and 36 touchdowns. Edelman only had three career 1,000 yard seasons. He did most of his damage in the postseason. He had 118 catches for 1,442 yards and five touchdowns in 19 career postseason games. He had a 13-6 record in the postseason and six career 100-yard receiving games. His postseason success and his steady regular season success could be enough to get him into the Pro Football Hall of Fame someday but it is highly unlikely that he is a first-ballot Hall of Famer due to his lack of elite stats during the regular season. Edelman is saying farewell with a bang. "Foxboro forever."