Sure, it’s not ideal, but with limited cap space and their conservative cap practices it’s not out of the question that another team blows Edelman away with a better offer. James Christensen mentioned Bill O’Brien and Houston as an option and I think they’ll be in play.
I do expect Amendola will take a step forward next year, hopefully he’ll be able to get healthy this offseason quickly. But he’s more expensive to cut than keep this season so he’ll be back and the Pats didn’t pay him that much dough to be Edelman’s back up.
I have no idea how it will play out, there are a lot of factors in play, but I don’t think it’s a slam dunk. And I don’t think the Pats view their slot receiver position as the toughest one to replace.