Earlier Tuesday morning, we explained the challenges the Patriots would face moving forward trying to replace a truly unique player and teammate in Pro Bowl fullback James Develin, who was placed on injured reserve with a neck injury on Monday.
During their conference calls with the local media, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels each described the challenge the team must overcome moving forward without Develin’s presence.
While New England has a backup fullback on the roster in the form of recently-signed former practice squader Jakob Johnson, Belichick made it quite clear that the responsibility of filling Develin’s role won’t fall on an individual.
“First of all, I think we’re fortunate to have one James Develin on our team,” Belichick said. “He works extremely hard. He’s a versatile player that does things for us offensively and in the kicking game. Very dependable and has a lot of experience in our system. So we’re lucky to have him. To have two of him, and be able to replace him with another James Develin, it’s just unrealistic.
“So there is no one person that can do what he does. That would have to be modified in some way where it was…he might be replaced with one person on one particular thing, but offensively and the kicking game and some of the other roles that he has in those areas as well, not just our first-down offense and goal line, but when you add all those roles together he has a number of different roles on our team including the kicking game. It will be hard for any one person to do that. So I think you kind of eliminate that and kind of look at, OK, we have first down, we have second down, short yardage and goal line, we have punt team, we have kickoff return. We have all the things that he participated in. OK, what’s the best way for us to manage those situations now? Is it one person? I doubt it. Is it a combination of people on or off the roster? That’s really the conversation and you go from there.”
McDaniels, who’s turned to Develin as lead blocker to pave the way for Sony Michel and others over the last year, including an impressive run to a Lombardi Trophy last winter, has long been a vocal fan of what the fullback brings to the field and the locker room in New England.
“James is a special guy,” McDaniels reiterated Tuesday morning. “He’s certainly played a very valuable role in our offense. And he’s had a lot to do with our success when he’s on the field and certainly been recognized for that, deservedly so. He provides a toughness and a leadership and a physicality that we love around here. He’s a great person, a great worker, great attitude. Always a positive contributor to our performance offensively. You are not just going to plug in somebody and replace that. We have depth on the team or the practice squad to try to be able to facilitate some different things as we go through the season and incur injuries. So we’ll try to do the best we can to put the right guys out there in positions where we think they can be successful. Sometimes you can put a guy in and get some similar results. And other times it might take a little while. We’ll see in this case what we are able to do as we move forward.”
By NFL rule, Develin could be eligible to return to the Patriots after eight weeks, assuming he’s healthy at that point, which is far from a certainty based on reports surrounding an injury that is apparently both muscular and disc related. To return he’d use up one of two spots afforded to New England, slots that could also go to first-round rookie wide receiver N’Keal Harry or second-year left tackle Isaiah Wynn.
There is uncertainty regarding Develin’s future health and possible return, but there is no question how much he’ll be missed by the Patriots during his absence.
Belichick and McDaniels made that quite clear. And anyone telling you otherwise simply isn’t paying attention.
Related
