Why Patriots Will Have Hard Time Replacing This Special Teams Ace

The New England Patriots will be without one of their top special teams players for the rest of the NFL season.

Cody Davis will undergo season-ending surgery after suffering a non-contact knee injury during last week’s 38-15 win over the Cleveland Browns, NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport reported Wednesday. The Patriots placed Davis on injured reserve Tuesday.

Davis, a 33-year-old safety in the final year of his contract, entered the Browns game ranked second among Patriots players in special teams snaps played this season behind Matthew Slater. He finished third in that category in each of the last two seasons, trailing only Slater and Justin Bethel. Davis also is the team leader in special teams tackles with six (three solo).

Slater, New England’s longtime special teams captain, said he was “gutted” by Davis’ injury and felt like he was “in the Twilight Zone” for the rest of the game.

“I’ve played with a lot of guys in this league, and I can’t think of a better person than Cody Davis,” Slater said after the game.

Davis, like Slater, exclusively plays in the kicking game, logging just one defensive snap over his two-plus seasons in New England. But his wide-ranging special teams role makes him a difficult player to replace, as head coach Bill Belichick explained Wednesday.

“With a player like Cody, you lose that player on five different units,” Belichick said. “Each unit has its own dynamics. Each unit has its own responsibilities that come with what he does. No team has a player that can replace a player like that. It would have to be some type of multiples. You don’t just plug in a guy and get what he’s given us. That player would already be on the field. And if you move that one to him, then you replace the other guy. …

“But the question has to be answered somewhere along the line, and then of course there’s also the backup for those five spots. Once you identify who the person is that’s going to replace Cody, then there’s five people that have to replace him, or one person has to replace him on five different units, however you want to look at it. But it’s five replacements that you have to come up with, and that’s part of the challenge of special teams.”

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Davis is part of the Patriots’ kickoff, kickoff return, punt, punt return and field-goal defense teams, and he plays a specialized role as the personal protector on the punt unit. Safety Adrian Phillips replaced him in that spot against Cleveland.

Belichick said he, special teams coordinator Cam Achord and special teams assistant Joe Houston have discussed how to proceed in Davis’ absence, including weighing whether to give more special teams responsibilities to players who already are offensive or defensive regulars. Phillips, for example, ranks fourth among Patriots defenders in snaps played this season.

“It’s definitely a challenge,” Belichick said. “Cody’s really a player that’s really impossible to replace 1-for-1. It’s going to have to be some kind of maneuvering and shuffling to be able to handle the responsibilities that he’s done for us.”

The Patriots will host the Chicago Bears this week on “Monday Night Football.” They entered Wednesday with one open roster spot following Davis’ move to IR.