Is there a reason for Edelman's drops?

Bill Belichick comes from an ancient age of football. An era where if a player could walk and breathe, they were healthy enough to play football. A time where player safety barely existed. An era that saw Detroit lion Chuck Hughes die on the field.

As people age, it hurts more to take bumps. Injuries take longer to heal and pain becomes more distracting. Julian Edelman has been dealing with a knee injury but to the severity. We cannot say. 

The Patriots have Edelman limited in practice but don't expect him to miss any game time. However this is the same staff that let Edelman and Sanu play last season. It would come out after the season that both players had injuries that should've landed them on the IR. Sanu had surgery to repair the damage from playing with an injured high ankle.

Few years back, there was reported tension between Alex Guerrero and Patriots medical staff. Now I haven't read the book, "the dynasty" but Guerrero wasn't happy about how the Patriots were handling injuries. 

When one takes into account Brady's doctor having issues with Patriots medical personnel and the fact that the Patriots allow player to play with serious injuries, one has to wonder how bad Edelman's knee really is. The Patriots clearly downplay injuries.

Is Edelman distracted with an injury that he doesn't want to get worse because his team doctors won't put him on the IR? Wouldn't be the first player or first team for that to occur with. Edelman has been making mental mistakes and playing like a frail individual afraid to take contact. 

This could all be coincidence but it could also explain his drops going back to sometime in 2018. As much as Patriots nation will hate this, the league might wanna look into if the Patriots are on the level about player injuries and treatment.