Edelman and the Dolphins Anecdotes

Former New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman's draft recollections to NFL writer Peter King had a couple of interesting Dolphins-related angles

One of the big stories around the NFL last week was the retirement of New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman, who went from an undersized college quarterback to a seventh-round pick with a career good enough that there was some debate as to whether he belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Edelman revisited his pre-draft process in Peter King's Football Morning In America column Monday and the whole thing had a couple of interesting Dolphins angles to it.

Let's start by pointing out that Edelman was a running quarterback at Kent State in 2008 when he rushed for 1,370 yards and 13 touchdowns while having mediocre passing statistics (55.6 completion percentage, 13 touchdowns, 11 interceptions).

That same year, 2008, was when the Dolphins made heavy use of the Wildcat formation to shock the NFL by rebounding from a 1-15 finish the previous year to end up 11-5 and win the AFC East.

So maybe it made sense that the Dolphins would want to take a look at Edelman in the pre-draft process as a potential part-time Wildcat quarterback, and they indeed did take a look, as Edelman told King.

"Then Miami brought me in," Edelman recalled. "That was intriguing to me to see Miami for the first time. They had the Wildcat going and so I was over there, big-eyed and bushy-tailed over that."

The Dolphins did take a college quarterback in that 2009 NFL draft with the Wildcat in mind, but they did that in the second round when they selected Pat White out of West Virginia with their second of nine picks that year.

Dolphins fans old enough to remember know full well that pick backfired, with White's NFL career consisting of 13 regular season appearances his rookie year before he was sidelined as the result of a nasty collision with Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor.

The Dolphins could have had Edelman in the seventh round before New England took him, but instead went with Weber State linebacker J.D. Folsom, whose NFL career consisted of two appearances as a backup in his rookie season.

The Dolphins certainly aren't the only team that missed the boat on Edelman, but it might be more painful in their case because they were running the kind of offense for which he was well suited.

And, who knows, the Dolphins could have used him as a wide receiver in time the way the Patriots did.

And this is where we have another Dolphins connection when it comes to Edelman's pre-draft preparation, based on what he told King.

Turns out Edelman did a lot of wide receiver work prior to the draft and somebody who helped him out throughout the process was a young NFL quarterback by the name of Charlie Frye.

Yes, the same Charlie Frye who earlier this offseason was named as Dolphins quarterbacks coach to work with Tua Tagovailoa.