FOXBORO -- If and when Julian Edelman takes the field for Saturday's Divisional Round matchup between the Patriots and Chiefs, he's not planning on giving anything less whatever he can.
"I'm gonna go full-throttle regardless," Edelman told reporters on Monday. "If it goes, it goes."
The Patriots No. 1 receiver was referring to his left foot, which he fractured in a win over the Giants back in Week 10. He had a screw inserted soon after suffering the injury, then returned to practice back on Dec. 11 and has been a limited participant in the team's workouts since then.
Out for the Patriots final seven games of the regular season, their offense struggled in several areas without him. Their third-down efficiency has been particularly hampered by his absence as the Patriots converted on 50 percent of their tries with Edelman in the lineup. Without him, that number dropped to 32 percent. And in the final two weeks of the regular season, the Patriots were just 5-for-24 on their third-down attempts.
Edelman explained that it was difficult to be a spectator over the course of the last two months.
"People don't realize that you put a lot into this," Edelman said. "Not just during the season but before the season. It's a 12-month job. I put my heart and soul into everything I do to be ready for the season. To not be able to go out there and compete with the guys that you work hard with ed in the spring, summer, it sucks to do that. Hopefully I can go out and help them in practice and get better each day and improve and prepare for this week."
It has been reported that Edelman will wear a shoe with a metal insert to help reduce the risk of his foot flexing the wrong way and enduring a re-fracture, but he appeared to be moving well at Monday's practice, where he made a handful of aggressive cuts and appeared to accelerate without issue during drills.
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"I'm feeling good," Edelman said. "We've been working hard. Every day I've done everything I can to get myself ready for the next day."
At times, Edelman said, it has tried his patience to be able to rehab. He brings a high-effort and high-energy approach on game days that doesn't exactly suit the healing process.
"I'm kind of my worst enemy when it comes to that," he admitted. "Trying to over-push things. We've had our staff work with me to keep me from hurting myself so I think we've handled it pretty decent."
He allowed that sometimes he has to remind himself to throttle back, but "there's no dipping the toe here. It's just diving in."
It remains to be seen whether or not Edelman will be able to hit the on-switch as soon as he takes the field and resemble the player he was mid-season, and he admitted that his chemistry with Brady will need some refreshing before it's where it once was.
But that's what practice is for. The Patriots will be back on the field on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week.
"We do work a lot together," Edelman said of Brady. "I know him and he knows me, but we still gotta work very hard this week to make up on the ground lost that we didn't have. That's what we're going to do."