The only good thing about the Patriots winning a bunch of Super Bowls in recent years is that they had a local guy on the team. That was Montco native and Boyertown Bear James Develin, who retired in 2020 after collecting three rings with the Pats.

Develin is now back in the area and runs two smoothie and coffee shops at the shore, called Soulberri. He grew up an Eagles fan and never stopped being one, even while playing alongside Tom Brady for seven NFL seasons.

We checked in with him for a Super Bowl 59 preview, and talked about Jalen Hurts, the Eagles running game, and why we should all try to enjoy the ride.

Crossing Broad: Super Bowl, 59 Eagles vs. Chiefs, rematch of a couple years ago. When you look at this matchup, what’s the first thing that comes to your head? What’s top of your mind when you begin to analyze this thing?

James Develin: I think the Eagles have just about as much talent as I think I’ve ever seen on a football team. Offensively, at every position they have top five, top three or the top player at that respective position. From an outsider’s perspective, a high level overview, Philly’s got so much talent. But Kansas City, they do so much to help themselves win football games. They have Patrick Mahomes and his magic. They have Kelce. They have good, solid running backs in Pacheco and Hunt. Man, it’s tough to call it, but I feel like if Philly hangs their hat on what they’re really good at and they don’t try to get too cute or too fancy, and they slug it out and let the offensive line pave holes and slow the game down, I think Philly has a really good shot. This is coming from a guy who used that methodology in 2018 out in Kansas City (Pats vs. Chiefs AFC title game). So selfishly I want to see them do the same thing again (laughs). It should be a good one, for sure.


CB: When you have a team approaching dynasty status and they’ve played a lot of Super Bowls in recent years, things get blurry. It’s hard to separate one team from another, kind of how it was with your Patriot teams. Do you have a sense of how this Chiefs team compares to other Chiefs teams going back a few years now?

Develin: You’re right about (the blurry thing). As a Patriot who lived through that whole four Super Bowls in five years (stretch), I can delineate between the two, but now being on the outside and looking at Kansas City and what they’ve done over the last five years, it’s really hard. You just kind of assume that they’re showing up with the same team the year prior or even beyond that. But this team, it seems like they have a nice weapon in Xavier Worthy, and they’re still riding the Mahomes and Kelce connection. Getting Hunt to stabilize things helped. Between him and Pacheco it’s a nice combination to utilize the running game. They had the ability to do it, but now it’s almost a strength of theirs, to mix in runs and throw play action off of it.

And then defensively they’re just always game. Spagnuolo is a smart dude. He’s always seemingly making the right call in the right situation. They’re just one of those gamey teams. They’re never fully out of it. You always gotta be on your Ps and Qs.

CB: As Eagles fans learned two years ago.

Develin: Yup.

CB: You played against Vic Fangio and I know you’re familiar with his defense. What do you see from that unit and what’s the game plan for it?

Develin: The thing that stands out is the development of the young guys. They’ve got so many guys playing at a high level with only two or three years, or as a rookie. Getting these guys up to speed and getting them on the same page, you gotta tip your hat. When he was in Miami, he had a mix of more veteran leadership on the back end, guys like Xavien Howard, so it was a different dynamic. With these guys, they seem to be in the right place at the right time, never unprepared or not ready for situations. That’s what you love to see, guys handling any kind of big moment. That was one thing in the NFC Championship Game that I was really impressed by, I felt like to a degree Washington you could sense they were young and surprised at how big the moment was. But Philly seemed to be like, ‘you know what? we’re meant to be here and this is what we do.‘ So you love to see that, that level of preparation he’s bestowed in those guys.

CB: Not to get too deep into the weeds with it, but everybody talks about Jonathan Gannon two years ago, keeping the safeties back and trying to limit explosive plays. Fangio is the genesis of that philosophy, though I guess Gannon came more from the Mike Zimmer tree. But the fact that they are able to generate pressure without having a high blitz rate, they can keep the safeties there and keep the ball in front of them, it’s such a modern thing but they do it so well.

Develin: And a lot of that has to do with having such a disruptive player in the middle. In order to have a strong team, offense or defense, you have to be strong up the middle. I think having guys like Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, Carter has had a fantastic year and deserves every accolade coming his way, but really the combination of guys, Milton Williams, all these guys on the inside have been playing really well and they’ve allowed everyone around them to increase their level of play. You’ve got double teams inside so now these guys are 1v1 on the outside and it opens a whole litany of possibilities. You really have to look inside first. Then behind him, Zack Baun and the way he’s come on this year, plus Nakobe Dean before he got hurt. But shit, let’s not forget that Oren Burks steps right in and has some of the best games of his career. Just stepping right in.

CB: San Francisco fans are wondering where that guy was last year.

Develin: Yeah, so it’s been cool to see the strength in that defense. The fact they lost some really pivotal key leaders right up the middle on both sides, they plugged in these new guys and now they’re Pro Bowlers. It’s great to see man. It’s how you want to build a team.

CB: Andy Reid has been doing this for so long. He keeps coming up with new things. Super Bowl 57 he kills the Eagles with pre-snap motion and the corn dog play. What is it about him as a play caller and designer that’s allowed him to do it at a high level for all of these years?

Develin: I can’t speak from personal experience (with Reid), but I can say there was a certain level of trust we had in New England, this level of continuity in key positions offensively. Mainly quarterback, offensive coordinator or play caller, then the trustworthy guys at tight end, slot receiver, we always had really solid guys there. 3rd down back, these key, pivotal spots were very solid, blue chip players for us, and I think the Chiefs have the same thing. Reid being with Mahomes this long, there’s just no situation they haven’t been in or at least gone over multiple times. Everything is really in sync, in tune, and there’s no loss of communication. They’ve got ideas for every little thing, or, like you said (with corn dog), wrinkles off of a concept. If you have a young guy or two guys who don’t have a ton of rapport with each other, that’s hard to put that in, in two weeks before the Super Bowl. That continuity and level of trust, it’s hard to build that without the reps and the time together.

New England ran for 176 yards and four touchdowns in a 37-31 win over the Chiefs in the 2019 AFC Championship Game (Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports)

CB: I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask about the Jalen Hurts thing. For whatever reason, we the media have twisted this into some controversy. People keep bringing up the passing game limitations and talking about Hurts as a game manager. I think it’s just the product of having a strong running game, so you lean on that and Jalen does what he’s asked to within that framework, but when he’s been asked to sling it, he can still do it. He did it in the NFC title game and against Pittsburgh a month or two before that.

Develin: I’ve heard a lot of gripes within my family and friend groups. Honestly, we can all say what we wanna say about the guy, but he’s doing what he needs to do to put his team in a position to win games. I went to the Rams playoff game. There was definitely a bit of frustration in the crowd. Some of the sacks he was taking, that safety, and later in the game, third down, he’s running naked to his left and gets sacked. And I’m like, you know what, those are tough (plays) but he is making the right decision in the moment, not trying to force balls. Pass game, I think you’re exactly right, there’s only so many plays you can call, and when you’ve got a running game and an offensive line like they have, why would you do anything else? The most demoralizing thing you can to do to an opposing team is just stuff runs at them all day. If they’ve found a recipe, like ‘we’ve got this workhorse of a back, we’ve got these five guys up front that literally at times cannot be stopped, then let’s just mow these guys down.’ We can keep Jalen fresh and he can do what he does with the runs and the RPOs and throw the ball when he needs to on a key third down, or fourth down even. Are we getting a little too fine in our granularity here? Picking this guy apart. Yeah, his stats might not be ‘wow’ in the pass game, but –

CB: But you can’t have it all, right? You can’t have Saquon running for 200 yards and then Jalen throwing for 300 on top of that. You get it. You’re close in age to me and grew up here you know about the Buddy Ryan stereotype about running the ball and playing defense. This team has represented that better than any Eagles team, probably ever.

Develin: I completely agree. And honestly I went through a little period where I was listening to New England sports talk radio when I was up there, and I was like, ‘man, these guys are just finding things to complain about.’ We’re winning 12+ games a year and we’re starting to pick apart the oddest things. Yes, not everything is perfect, but at the end of the day we’re winning football games. That’s what we’re there to do. It might not always be great, we might squeak a few out, we might turn the ball over more than we should, but those are all learning points, points where we can get better. And I think the same thing is sort of happening here, where we have this really good team and now we’re getting bored because it doesn’t sell to say ‘well the Eagles put in another great performance, we’ll see you next week!‘ We gotta start picking apart something.

CB: This doesn’t happen very often. You and I were lucky to grow up in that era with Donovan McNabb and a lot of wins, but we remember what the 90s were like, too. If you’re complaining about this now, we’d be happy to transport you back 30 years to relive that. We’re getting spoiled. We’re looking for perfection.

Develin: It’s tough to come by in the NFL. And me being a New England fan, enjoy this stuff while it lasts (laughs). I’m still an Eagles fan but also a Patriots fan till the day I die. Let’s try to enjoy this while we got it. It’s truly something special. Hopefully they take care of business on Sunday.