Patriots legend Julian Edelman claims athletes chasing big money during free agency are behind ‘fool’s gold’
Amidst a booming free agency market, three-time Super Bowl champion Julian Edelman believes it comes at the cost of winning.
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Julian Edelman (Image via IMAGO)
If there is one thing Julian Edelman knows, it is how to win. The former wide receiver of the New England Patriots was never the highest paid player at his position throughout his career. In fact, he amassed under $50 million as his career earnings. Today, the top 10 highest-paid receivers in the league all earn more in two seasons than Edelman did in his 11 seasons of playing in the NFL.
The free agency market has changed drastically, however, Julian Edelman believes it is nothing more than a gold rush for players. Today, athletes and their agents have all the leverage when headed to the negotiating table. After one or two consecutive Pro Bowl-worthy seasons, an athlete goes all-in and bags a significant deal.
This is not to say that the best players are not deserving of the money, but their payday comes at a cost, and the cost is winning. While the talent at the wide receiver position has never been as stacked as it is today, the teams with the highest paid receivers are seldom able to compete and win Super Bowls.
On the recent episode of Dudes on Dudes podcast hosted by Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski, the three-time Super Bowl champion expressed his disapproval of free agency.
Free agency is kind of like fool’s gold, because if you’re going to free agency and if you’re that great of a player, there’s a reason why the team is not exciting. There’s a lot of free agents that get paid a lot of money to go be a hole-filler at, you know, another team that does a different thing, that has a different identity, a different scheme.
Julian Edelman said
Ultimately, his point is that chasing a big payday comes at the price of winning. When one team fails to compensate a star athlete well, it is because they have other pieces on their roster who are among the best at their position and occupy good chunks of the cap space.
When another team swoops in to offer the player more money, there is a good chance that they are not immediate Super Bowl contenders. Edelman’s logic is valid. Only two of the top 10 highest paid receivers in the league appeared in the 2024-25 playoffs. Those two were Amon-Ra St. Brown and AJ Brown. While the former managed to progress up to the Divisional Round, the latter was able to win the Super Bowl.
Julian Edelman believes in drafting and developing players
The secret that Edelman believes leads to success is drafting and developing players. Bill Belichick’s philosophy of not spending a ton during free agency and relying on picking raw talent and grooming them to be reliable players has yielded results, and that is what Jules believes to be the most sustainable way of winning and establishing a dynasty in the NFL.
In his eyes, free agency is not the place where championship teams are created.
I think that, like, free agencies, you’re not going to make your team the best as possible because you’re not going to win a Super Bowl over free agency. I think you put your team, the best teams that we were always a part of, we’d bring free agents in, but we built our team through the draft and you got to develop your players.
Julian Edelman added
Free agency should be viewed as a means to bring in one or two final pieces needed to complete building a team capable of winning a championship. However, the majority of the squad should comprise players who were drafted and developed by the team.
While Edelman’s words have some truth to them, it should be noted that some teams did build their fortunes through free agency.
The reigning Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles drafted Devonta Smith and Jalen Hurts, but it was the addition of Saquon Barkley and AJ Brown through free agency that made their offense great. However, they built their defense by drafting well and signing free agents over the years.
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