Former Super Bowl MVP Julian Edelman teases return to NFL again

Tom Brady has already come out of retirement once. Rob Gronkowski is currently in his second retirement, and there have been plenty of rumors that "Gronk" will eventually return to the field.

Could a former New England Patriots teammate of Brady and Gronkowski be having second thoughts as well?

Super Bowl LIII MVP Julian Edelman recently appeared on "The Green Light with Chris Long" podcast to discuss his retirement and thoughts on possibly returning to the league this season. Edelman and Long played together with the Pats for one season in 2016, a campaign that ended in the duo and the rest of the team hoisting the Lombardi Trophy after downing the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI.

"That’s what I’m trying to figure out, you know?" Edelman told Long, when asked if he’s been working out with the intentions of making a return to the NFL this year. "People don't realize it's not like — especially when you're older — you can’t just work out for a week, take a Gatorade shake, go run a conditioning test, and then get ready for (expletive) 18 weeks of football. It’s a huge mind commitment. ... And you can’t dip your toe in. You’ve gotta dive into that thing."

This isn't the first time that the undersized former wideout has teased a potential return to the gridiron. In June, during an appearance at the Sunset Sports Media Festival in Zadar, Croatia, Edelman said, "I don't know, we'll see," when asked about possibly joining "TB12" and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In 11 NFL seasons, the 36-year-old registered 620 receptions for 6,822 receiving yards and 36 touchdowns across 137 regular-season games. Those totals place Edelman second, fourth and ninth, respectively, on New England's all-time leaderboard.

"I’m doing things where I’m in like a beginning phase of an offseason-ish (program)," Edelman said. "Just kind of feeling out my body and feeling out my legs. I’ve had some downtime. My body feels good. There’s some deficiencies here and there, but I feel extremely better than I did the last year and a half of my career. ... I don’t know if it’s fool’s gold just because I haven’t been compounding loadage. That’s why you get interested. So you kick it up a little bit here and there and you analyze. You don’t make decisions. And that’s what I’m doing."