Brady, Belichick Praise Brown Grad Develin After He's Placed on IR

Brady, Belichick Praise Brown Grad Develin After He's Placed on IR

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and head coach Bill Belichick praised Brown University graduate James Develin during their respective press conferences on Wednesday.

As GoLocalProv reported, Develin was placed on injured reserve on Monday due to a neck injury.

“He’s a tone-setter for us. He’s a hell of a player, great teammate – I mean, he’s everything you would look for in a teammate, person. We hate not having him out there. So, he’ll be able to play a role, not necessarily on the field but for us in the locker room and practice and so forth because he’s just got a great spirit about him,” said Brady during his press conference late Wednesday afternoon.

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In Develin’s absence, rookie fullback Jakob Johnson will be one of the players filling the hole.

“There's nobody to replace James Develin so we have to do it with a combination of other people or schemes because he has a role on offense and in the kicking game as well. He's a pretty special guy. He really does a great job for us, brings a lot of positives to our team. We don't have any one person to replace him,” said Belichick.

Develin joins rookie wide receiver N’Keal Harry and offensive tackle Isaiah Wynn on the injured reserve list.

Only two of the three can come off IR this season.

Develin with Patriots

After graduating from Brown in 2009, Develin started his career on the Cincinnati Bengals practice squad from 2010-2011 before going the Patriots in 2012.

With New England, Develin has appeared in 83 regular-season games with 31 starts and totaled 15 rushing attempts for 26 yards and five touchdowns and 31 receptions for 222 yards. 

Develin has also appeared in 14 postseason games with six starts and posted three rushing attempts for 5 yards and caught five passes for 29 yards and one touchdown. 

Brady added, "I think that particular position – there’s not a lot of glory in playing fullback in the NFL, but he embraced that role and I think he gained the love and trust and respect of his teammates for that, and we feel the same way about him."

In 2018, Develin played in all 16 regular-season games with eight starts and rushed six times for 8 yards and a career-high four touchdowns.

He also caught 12 passes for 61 yards.