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Duke TE Braxton Deaver Out for Season

By John Woodcock

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Being named to a Preseason Award Watch List at Duke is not all it is cracked up to be. John Mackey Award candidate senior tight end Braxton Deaver now joins LB Kelby Brown on the list of Blue Devils with torn ACLs in training camp. Like Brown, Deaver will miss the upcoming season, according to Andrea Adelson of ESPN.

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When Kelby Brown tore his ACL, Duke fans grimaced, but in the back of their minds they had be thinking: we still have David Helton, we’ll be okay. After all, Duke runs the 4-2-5, which is not supposed to be a linebacker heavy defense by design.

Losing Deaver is another animal all together. Deaver was a preseason second-team All-ACC pick. He was coming off a season where he caught 43 balls for 600 yards. He was likely to spend this season as Anthony Boone’s security blanket and the guy that would prevent defenses from basing their coverage around Jamison Crowder out wide.

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    • That plan is now out the window. More pressure will fall on Crowder to produce in the passing game. This may mean monster numbers for Crowder if defenses do not snuff him out. Another guy who will have to step up is Max McCaffery, son of former Giants and Broncos receiver Ed McCaffery. Boone will also have to change his thought process as plays break up.

    The one guy with the opportunity to fix all this is redshirt junior David Reeves, who will probably be the guy to step into the breach. Reeves, a 250 lb Alabaman, caught 3 balls for 38 yards last year. His size suggests that Reeves has been a blocker in the past, but now he will get to show what he can do in the passing game. Or perhaps one of Duke’s less experienced tight ends will get to see the field to make up for Deaver’s loss.

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