FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said Monday that the trust he had with injured receiver Julian Edelman will be the most difficult to replace, in part because it's the type of thing that can only be built over time.
Edelman, who tore his right ACL in Friday night's road preseason game against the Detroit Lions, is out for the 2017 season. As for how the Patriots proceed, the first receiver Brady mentioned in his weekly interview on sports radio WEEI was veteran Danny Amendola.
"I've had that [trust] with Danny, and Danny's been such a great player for us," Brady said, before mentioning that fellow receiver Chris Hogan "has had a great camp" and Brandin Cooks "has done a great job."
Brady also highlighted second-year receiver Malcolm Mitchell. "When he's been out there, I have a lot of trust in him," Brady said. Mitchell, however, has been slowed by a knee injury this offseason.
It will take more than the receiving corps to account for Edelman's absence, Brady added.
"All the backs and tight ends, we're going to have to pick up the slack. The production has got to come from a different place," he said on the "Kirk and Callahan" program. "I know Jules usually gets a lot of looks, makes a lot of catches for us. It's got to be distributed somewhere else. Injuries are tough, they're always a part of the game. We just have to try to overcome it."
Including the playoffs, Edelman has 436 receptions since 2013, which are 187 more than any other Patriots player in that span (Rob Gronkowski is next, with 249).
The Patriots practice for the first time Monday since Edelman's injury, with Brady describing the offense as "kind of a work in progress," noting that "there's a lot of things that just changed in one night." That was a reference to Edelman's injury, which erases eight-plus years of experience between the quarterback and his go-to receiver.
"When you've had that level of experience of game situations, practices, we've had so many hours of time together talking about routes and situations," Brady said on WEEI. "So much of the quarterback/receiver relationship is about trust. I see things a certain way, and the receiver needs to see it the exact same way in order for me to be able to anticipate where to go with the ball. He and I have just had that; this is our ninth year together on the same team, talking about the same offense. We're so in sync."
Brady said that he didn't know the extent of the injury until later on Friday night but that he had seen Edelman get rolled up on by a Lions defender on one of the plays before Edelman tore the ACL.
"It's a tough loss. He's taken so many hits, and he kind of gets up and shakes them off, and I think everyone kind of thought that's what would happen. Everyone kind of figured out the extent of the injury later on," Brady said on the program. "It's just tough for all of us. Great player. Great teammate. Great friend. He really plays with a chip on his shoulder, and I thought he brought that attitude to the whole offense, the whole team. We're going to have to find another way."
Edelman is often the first Patriots player to lead the team out of the tunnel on game day, sprinting from one end zone to the other, which reflects something else Brady said the Patriots will miss.
"He's really a leader on the team, just his style of play and attitude," Brady said.