By now you’ve probably heard, Julian Edelman left practice on Tuesday after throwing his helmet down in frustration with an apparent injury. Trainers were looking at Edelman’s left foot, the same one that he broke last season. Edelman did walk to the locker room under his own power, a better sign than if he was carted off, but it appears he’s suffered a setback, though Ian Rapoport is reporting that it’s not serious (phew?)…
That wasn’t the only injury buzzkill on Tuesday, as Rob Ninkovich also left practice with trainers looking at his upper arm. Arms are usually less worrisome than feet when it comes to injuries, however Nate Solder was lost to IR last year due to a torn biceps.
So we hold our breath and wait to hear what the prognosis on both is. Unfortunately, since it’s training camp, we might not get any immediate answers. Edelman and Ninkovich will likely be missing from practice tomorrow and we’ll have to wait for sources to leak what’s going on before Bill Belichick will tell us anything.
Here are the tweets of note if you want to re-live the first shitty practice of training camp.
Bill Belichick supporting Nate Ebner with some USA Rugby gear. Games today vs. Argentina (12p) and Brazil (5p). pic.twitter.com/Lr3wV5oGY2
— Phil Perry (@PhilAPerry) August 9, 2016
Love this and as Matt Chatham pointed out, things like this really go a long way with the players.
Edelman is putting on a show out here. Looks really sharp in early passing drill.
— Christopher Price (@cpriceNFL) August 9, 2016
Oh great! Edelman is back and 100% and that foot won’t be a problem anymore! Woo hoo!
In 1-on-1 passing drills, Edelman just spun Saints S Vonn Bell around on an out route. Comical stuff. Foot looking pretty, pretty good.
— Kevin Duffy (@KevinRDuffy) August 9, 2016
Haha! What a chump! Edelman is awesome! We’re going to the Super Bowl!!
Ninkovich just left the field with the team doctor. He was shaking his head during the walk.
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) August 9, 2016
Oh. I thought Ninkovich was un-injurable?
Patriots DE Rob Ninkovich is scheduled to undergo MRI to determine severity of triceps injury that knocked him out of practice.
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) August 9, 2016
Hold your breath.
Julian Edelman has gone off to the side with disgust, threw helmet. Trainer Jim Whalen looking at lower left leg as Edelman sits on cart.
— Tom E. Curran (@tomecurran) August 9, 2016
What.
Julian Edelman had taken off his left shoe while on cart. He is now walking off the field as practice continues.
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) August 9, 2016
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Based on the initial exams, #Patriots WR Julian Edelman’s injury is not believed to be serious, source said. Will keep checking.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 9, 2016
Well, that’s some good news. Still, signs are pointing to this foot being a thing for a while now. Going to take some management and of course, being forced to develop guys like Chris Hogan, Malcolm Mitchell and maybe even Chris Harper or DeAndre Carter, has got to be a good thing for the long term.
Pats have dropped eight — EIGHT — passes today. Garoppolo burnt by six of them.
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) August 9, 2016
Bad day for the Pats and you wonder if they were affected by seeing Edelman go down and leave.
Patriots defense struggled with Drew Brees who went 21/25 today
— Mark Daniels (@MarkDanielsPJ) August 9, 2016
Don’t love this. After getting lit up by Brady and Brees their heads must be spinning a bit. But that’s a good thing at this point in the season. Lots of corrections to be made and plenty of film to work with. We’ll see how they look the first couple drives on Thursday before it becomes a scrubfest.
Brady being Brady pic.twitter.com/NWgj7OF1AD
— Mark Daniels (@MarkDanielsPJ) August 9, 2016
Cherish every day he’s on the field in a Patriots uniform folks.
11v11s: Brady 7/11 INT
Garoppolo 7/15 INT
Brissett 4/7— Mark Daniels (@MarkDanielsPJ) August 9, 2016
Gross.
Malcolm Mitchell finished practice strong. Made an athletic adjustment on a back-shoulder throw. Created easy separation on a corner route.
— Phil Perry (@PhilAPerry) August 9, 2016
Small silver lining to take. Can’t wait to see Mitchell on Thursday night.
Drops: Gronk and Hogan each had 2. Dobson, Harper, White, Bolden 1 each.
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) August 9, 2016
This days happen in camp. Gotta turn it around tomorrow.
Pats RBs in general looked good today. Blount and Gaffney both made decisive cuts running and White had a strong day catching the ball.
— Adam Kurkjian (@AdamKurkjian) August 9, 2016
Good sign and really if Edelman is out it just puts more pressure on the run game? Why? Well plenty of people are saying if Edelman’s out it’s less of a big deal because of Bennett and the two-tight end offense. The problem area without Edelman, as it was last year and as it will be even with Gronk/Bennett, is third-and-long. You need fast guys who can get down the field and get open exactly where Brady wants them to be.
The biggest advantage of the 12 personnel is being unpredictable between run/pass but that’s out the window when it’s 3rd-and-9. So A) you need a running game that can get yards on first down to keep them out of the third-and-long holes and B) they’re going to have to rely on unproven wide receivers when the third-and-longs do happen.
Now we wait for more news on Edelman and Ninkovich. Please be okay… please be okay…