Pats Posits: No. Not Edelman.

Injuries. For the 2017 Patriots, they’re all that stand between them and another Super Bowl run, and in Friday’s preseason win over the Detroit Lions, their championship hopes might’ve taken a significant a hit.

Julian Edelman went down in a play eerily reminiscent of Wes Welker‘s non-contact fall in Houston 2009. Now, we wait for official word with an estimate of how long he’ll be out.

There’s plenty to unravel if Edelman’s lost for long. But at least on the surface, with Chris Hogan and Brandin Cooks leading the way, the passing attack is somewhat prepared to absorb this.

Otherwise it was the tale of two halves. Both the Patriots starting offense and defense played a complementary and often dominant first half. Then the back ups and roster hanger-ons stunk the place out in the second half.

It’s hard to talk about the good and the bad without a depressing undertone from seeing the engine of the offense go down in a non-contact heap. But let’s do our best to figure out what it all means in the Posits.

Brady to @ChrisHogan_15, Part II. pic.twitter.com/eBXRiwvwpI

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) August 25, 2017

— First, we have to start with how good Tom Brady, Hogan, Mike Gillislee and the offense looked out of the gate, 2007ing their way to a 24-0 first QUARTER lead. Get Solder back in there and they’re ready to roll! Even if it has to be without Jules. Big picture here, as much as there’s nothing worse than losing a key player to the worst injury in a meaningless game.

Patriots suspect Julian Edelman tore his ACL, but do not definitely know, per source. MRI on Sunday to determine full extent of injury.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 26, 2017

— Losing Edelman puts new pressure on Danny Amendola, which he’s more than capable of handling (as long as he doesn’t get dinged up). Does it open a roster spot for someone like Austin Carr? I’m not convinced. That will be an area to monitor against the Giants, along with the likes of James O’Shaughnessy, Devin Lucien and DJ Foster. I’m still not convinced any of them make the 53.

— Here are the Patriots’ top third down receivers since 2013.

— The pace of the offense was devastating, and that’s a good sign they feel comfortable with that with a new receiver like Cooks there. They had to make billboard signs against the Jets to clue Joey Galloway into the offense in 2009. They’re hiding much of how they really plan on using Cooks. Kansas City and the rest of us will find out a week from Thursday.

— Defensively things looked a lot tighter this week as I hoped they would. They started the game forcing four punts and two turn overs. Hard to get much better than that. They gave up a couple plays, including Butler’s long touchdown, but I feel good about the defense after much uncertainty in the first two games. Nice to see Trey Flowers out there who looked a little lighter to me.

— Alan Branch is the mountain in the middle of the defense, but it’s undrafted rookie Adam Butler I’m most excited about. Butler and fellow undraftee Harvey Langi saw time in the third down pass rush package and both were active. Especially Butler, who shows the kind of burst off the snap that every front can use. He’s the one who’s going to take Kony Ealy‘s roster spot (and his number 94 I bet).

— Jordan Richards saw time at linebacker (?) in this one. Pats are trying to squeeze some kind of use out of him. I’ve always viewed Richards as next up if Chung went down. We’ve seen him lost in space. Now we’ve seen him be nothing more than a JAG around the line of scrimmage.

— Gost hits the game winner but misses another extra point just to keep us all on our toes.

— Chris Hogan (4 rec. 70 yards 2 TDs) was on fire as he’s been all summer and he’s a big reason why they could overcome losing Edelman. Another option is using the running backs. Imagine a Hogan-Cooks-Gronk-White-Lewis package. The underneath stuff will be wide open with the downfield threat of Cooks-Hogan-Gronk. And don’t forget about Malcolm Mitchell, who just seems to keep getting banged up.

— I’ve been noticing more 3-3-5 big nickel this preseason. It’s important not to read too much into preseason personnel, but I do wonder if it fits them better now. With more stand up edges than hand down ones.

— I’m not sure what to think about David Harris playing deep into the third quarter. Maybe it’s getting him snaps in the new defense and conditioning. Or maybe he’s more on the decline than we realize and they’re taking a long hard look at him. I’d still like to think he’s a big part of the defense this year, but his usage has been a bit curious.

Hello, @mikescogilly! pic.twitter.com/hngpNsuMpL

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) August 25, 2017

— After the way the defense looked in the second half there isn’t many back up defenders I’m dying to jam onto my latest 53-man. Kony Ealy sure didn’t look like a guy out to prove the critics wrong. He always has a moment or two but he’s otherwise invisible. Whether he doesn’t fit the scheme or not, he just doesn’t look impactful.

— They’ll need Cyrus Jones even more now without Edelman. So I think his spot is pretty much locked. Still has holes in his game at corner, but reliably fielded all the punts even if he should’ve let a couple of them go into the end zone.

We hold our breath until Edelman’s prognosis is revealed, but we can finally turn the page from the preseason and start to really focus in on making the 53-man roster and the opener against the Chiefs.

With the still-90-man roster there will be no reason to play anyone they can’t afford to lose so it should be a scrub fest. That means we’ll get our best sense in years of who is actually fighting for a job and who’s secure.

A new 53-man roster coming next.