Julian Edelman Believes NFL Preseason Games Matter More Than You Think

On today's Pardon My Take... JULIAN EDELMAN! The longtime recurring guest of the show joined Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter in-studio to recap opening night between the Bills and Rams in addition to previewing the entirety of the upcoming NFL season. Edelman made some hot takes, including surprising division winners (Raiders and Vikings), and gave his thoughts on Tom Brady's preseason absence as well.

Speaking of the preseason, Edelman had an interesting stance on the importance of preseason football. To fans, it really means nothing. To coaches and guys trying to make the team, it obviously has a lot more value. And Edelman says that those games matter a lot more than you would initially think. Take a look:

Mr. Cat: So, I always assumed that argument is you just play the results. Because if guys come out and look fresh they're like, "Well, that's because they didn't play in the preseason."

Julia Edelman: The Bills played in the preseason you saw Josh Allen go out and lead his team to touchdown drives every time he was out there.

Mr. Commenter: He looked very comfortable.

Julian Edelman: Comfortable. The game looked slow to him. And that's because he's prepared. it's different with a lot of teams. 

Mr. Cat: Yeah, from your perspective, if you didn't play... did you need the preseason to get ready?

Julian Edelman: I liked it. They called it like a dress rehearsal, you get to have your football operations, you get to go over your routine after a drive, you know, working on the whiteboards, like in a game environment, it's a big thing. Like getting up, where's the play clock? Let's get our pregame meal situated, let's get our shit schedule situated, let's go through this thing, because everything on game day needs to be fucking flawless. You work so God damn fucking hard all week, you practice your ass off you're in all these long ass fucking meetings, they're fucking boring, to perform for three hours on Sundays. So, everything has to be pristine, so I was always a fan of a good couple series, three, maybe a half. They threw us in a half once, we weren't performing back in New England in I think it was '16 or something, we weren't playing good, and they wanted to see us play well. We needed to feel that, because that builds your confidence.

Mr. Cat: I like it.

Mr. Commenter: You don't think about that much, but it's like, on game day…

Julian Edelman: Stretch lines? Where the fuck are you going for stretch lines? You need to have that.

Mr. Commenter: You can't have any wasted minutes. You have to be in a rhythm to get everything done that you have to get done, and if you don't practice just going through the motions earlier, like from our perspective, we're like, "Oh, they probably need to get some reps in in the game," which I'm sure would help, too, but there's a lot more that goes into it.

Julian Edelman: A lot more. It's operation of just game day operation that you need to feel because once it hits you in the regular, season, there's a lot of shit that's going on. "Oh, fuck, I got to get my ankles taped. Oh, I got to get my massage, oh, I got to get my dynamic warmup in, oh I gotta go do this, oh, now I gotta go eat, I gotta get electrolytes in." There's so many little things that you have to take care of. God forbid you come into Week 1 and you're fucked up mentally because you didn't get your ankle taped the right way, that can affect you. 

Mr. Cat: Yeah. Alright, I'm a preseason believer now. You've changed me.

Julian Edelman: You need to feel… I like it. I liked it, that's what I was around, you now, getting out there, it always made my confidence high when you get to use your fucking shit that your worked on all training camp, and you get a lot of that in these joint practices, but the game day operation is huge.

Could the lack of preseason reps be the primary reason why the Rams looked so bad last night? It's hard to think otherwise. It's always great having Julian Edelman hop on the show and in-studio. Hopefully it happens more often as we progress through the NFL season. Football is back!