The later years of an NFL player’s career are often less enjoyable and filled with more struggles than their prime days.
This was certainly the case with former New England Patriots star Julian Edelman. The former NFL wide receiver suffered a torn ACL in 2017 and was suspended for the first four games of the 2018 regular season for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drugs policy.
Edelman retired from football in 2021 after a failed physical. Despite his late-career struggles, he is still considered one of the best success stories in football history because of his late-round draft status and his change from quarterback to wide receiver in the NFL. He went on to win three Super Bowls in his 11-year career.
Edelman joined Las Vegas Raiders star defensive end Maxx Crosby on the latest episode of his podcast, “The Rush with Maxx Crosby,” where he discussed some of his late-career hardships.
“[2018] was a tough year, bro,” he said. “That was really tough. You’re an older guy now; you’re getting to become old; you’re 33, you’re suspended, your team starts 2-2, everyone’s already talking, ‘They’re not going to do s—,’ and I was still rehabbing a knee. So, even when I came back, I still wasn’t me, and it was a very emotionally draining year.”
Edelman went on to talk about how he overcame some of those struggles.
“That’s where you have to be your most mentally tough,” he said. “Literally put those blinders on and not worry about any outside f—ing noise. I can remember coming back in Week 11 or 12; my knee had to get worked on right after the game because I just didn’t have that endurance strength yet, and I was dying. I just wasn’t there and it was f—ing hard. Then, all of a sudden, you hit that Week 13, and you start feeling that playoffs, and you could potentially get that bye, and you get a little jolt of energy, and you just try to stack a good day after a good day.
“It sounds so stupid and so simple, but if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. If you got better that day, and you could try to get better the next day, that’s really what it was.”
The NFL Draft will be held in Detroit, Mich., on April 25-27, 2024. The Las Vegas Raiders currently have the No. 13 overall pick.
Last year, we witnessed Maxx Crosby get robbed of more first-place votes for Defensive Player of the Year. I’m not going to sit here and say he was robbed of the award, even though he would have been my pick, but he definitely should have had more first-place votes than the zero he got. The Las Vegas Raiders have the best defensive player in the league.
Based on what we hear from his teammates, that same guy should also be considered for MVP. Not many defensive players make their teammates better. Usually, when you talk about a teammate making another better, it’s the quarterback making his wide receivers better, and vice versa.
Crosby’s teammates rave over how he fuels them in practice and in games.
“I turn into a whole different person,” John Jenkins says when asked about practice with Crosby. “So I always talk sh*t to Maxx. Everybody in the world knows Maxx is faster than me. I still talk sh*t to him, though. And to be honest with you, it kind of lit a fire in me to be more competitive, right? So I was just feeding off his energy and then, you know, and just talking sh*t to everybody else. I’ll talk sh*t to Tyree [Wilson], I’ll talk to Malcolm [Koonce], I’ll talk to Bilal [Nichols], and we’ll be in a game. The whole preparation was easier for me because I’ve been doing it for so long. But it was more of a mental approach on how I’m gonna relight my fire inside of me and be more aggressive and be more of an advocate for the D line.”
It seems that Crosby’s approach every day fires up his teammates and makes them want to be better—scratch that—it makes them better. That’s MVP-caliber stuff. That showed last season, too, especially in the second half of the season. Obviously, Crosby is not the reason the Raiders jumped to a top-five defense, but I’m sure his getting everyone going in practice and motivating everyone definitely helped.
Something tells me Crosby will go crazy next season with Wilkins next to him. He could be in line for his first DPOY or even an MVP award.
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