Julian Edelman was a sleeper when he was selected by the New England Patriots in the 7th round of the 2009 NFL Draft as the 232nd pick.
It really took until his 5th season in the league to become a household name and a player anyone would even consider taking in their fantasy football drafts.
Edelman has now partnered with Unisom to help sleep in his post-playing career as a father, broadcaster and fantasy football player.
Speaking of sleepers, the three-time Super Bowl champion gave out a few of his.
“I like Smith-Njigba,” Edelman told me. “I like his type of route running and he seems like a guy that will be on the same page with Sam Darnold, steal a lot of those targets. Jakobi Meyers, I think he’s a great PPR receiver. I think he’s gonna have a lot of catches. A real sleeper pick Pop (DeMario) Douglas out of New England. I think he can have 88 to 100 catches this year if he stays healthy. Those McDaniels offenses love those slots.”
Smith-Njigba is ranked in the top 25 among wide receivers. Meyers is rankined closer to No. 50. Douglas would be the real sleeper as most rankings have him outside the top 100 among receivers. While there may be a bit of a New England bias with that pick, McDaniels and a new head coach in Mike Vrabel with a QB in Drake Maye with a year under his belt now, the offense could see some improvement.
Being a sleeper along with a 6th-round QB who was a sleeper in Tom Brady really brought the QB and WR together, leading to three rings and a trip to the Patriots Hall of Fame.
“We both had to go a different road than a lot of people had to go,” Edelman said. That’s what brought us into such a tight relationship. The fact we were both late round guys is a reason we were so close to each other.”
With fantasy drafts in full order now, many are losing sleep figuring out who they want to take and doing mock after mock after mock.
“Sleep is harder now. I get tired of talking,” Edelman said. “I would sleep through the season. When you retire, now you’re thinking about what’s your kid doing, this and that. I have these sleep tabs from Unisom that help me out. I partnered up with Unisom because of all those people that have sleepless nights when they’re trying to re-arrange their fantasy teams. I wanted to be able to give them a sleeper pick for the next few weeks to help with those sleepless nights. It’s tough. You get into your teams and Unisom and I, we’re going to try to tackle those. Them with the sleep tabs, me with the sleeper picks that will be shown on my Instagram. It’s been a fun little collaboration.”
Edelman is hosting the “Games With Names” podcast, featuring athletes and celebrities. Danny DeVito was up there as his favorite guest. Edelman is also an analyst on FOX NFL Kickoff. Safe to say he’s tackled his post-playing career pretty well.
