Let’s face it, New England Patriots fans, we all have to adjust to life without Tom Brady.

And that includes the Patriots themselves, especially one Julian Edelman.

Over the past few seasons, we all know Edelman turned into Brady’s favorite or co-favorite (along with Rob Gronkowski) target. Now Brady and Gronkowski are binkies in Tampa, and Edelman must adjust to being one of the Patriots’ elder statesmen and offensive leader and catching passes from the Cam Newton and Jarrett Stidham.

Oh it’s got to be taking some getting used to. Edelman spoke publicly about it for the first time in a video call on Monday.

“Obviously it was a little different scenario,” Edelman said. “Ah, you know, but you’ve got to move on, you understand this is a business. You wish (Brady) well, and you instantly start thinking about what you have to do to go out and prepare yourself to help the team for the upcoming year.

“Obviously, we played a lot of ball together, and I love him to death. The train keeps moving.”

Chooo-choooo.

“It just keeps going,” Edelman said. “We’ve got to worry about the people we have here, and try to prepare ourselves the best way we can with the situation we’re in now, with everything (COVID-related) we’re dealing with.”

Edelman of course will have to develop a rapport with whoever quarterbacks the Patriots. He has worked out already with Newton, who he says is “a specimen, for sure.”

“When you first meet him, just his stature,” he said. “The dude is large, put together well. And he’s got a great energy about himself. I was really impressed with his work ethic and his mindset, just like I’ve been impressed with Stidham’s and Hoyer’s. … Everyone’s competing.”

Things will ramp up for the Patriots in about a week with regular practices, but Edelman has tried to make the best out of individual pre-camp workouts.

You know, the same kind he used to have with Brady.

He says they’re super important.

“I think anytime you’re spending time with guys that deliver the football, quarterbacks, especially on your own and away from facility you get to learn each other on a whole other level,” Edelman said, “as a person, family man, everything. When you get to learn those things, relationships and trust – that’s what they’re built from.

“It’s been great. You definitely need that time. … We definitely need a lot more. We’re in the same boat as everyone else. We just have to go out and make the best of it.”

It will be interesting to see how Edelman, who says the current players still have plenty of passion, projects himself in the Patriots locker room. He now is the veteran leader of the offense, but he says his major goal is work on his own game.

“Just try to lead by example,” he said. “(he’s) a guy you can ask questions to. … We’ve got a bunch of coaches who’ve been doing this a long time, it’s their job to get the guys going.”

Edelman smartly isn’t making any promises, he’s just working on getting chemistry with his team during what he called “a funky year” and “crazy off-season.”

Really, it can’t be the same. It’s bad enough you lose the guy you worshipped and whose work ethic you successfully emulated all these years. Then all of a sudden most of your work is on a laptop screen, like Monday’s interview.

That takes some getting used to. Edelman is no longer the seventh round pick who overcame the odds and made the team. He’s now at 34 the veteran, the offense’s longest tenured player. He’s been banged up, even missed a season with a knee injury.

“Yeah, it’s definitely crazy,” Edelman said. “I can remember it like yesterday when I was a rookie. Time flies when you’re having fun. … You make me feel old, thanks, geez.”

As Edelman says, “Every year there’s something new.” Times change, the locker room changes, the roster changes. But the Patriots and their fans have got to be hoping that Julian Edelman, even without Brady, doesn’t change a thing.

The guess here is he won’t.

Tom King may be reached at @Telegraph_TomK, or tking@nashuatelegraph.com

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