The Cleveland Browns choose TE Seth Devalve as the No. 138 overall pick in round 4.
On knows vice president of player personnel Andrew Berry through Ivy League connections:
“I know him. I do not know him personally, no.”
On overcoming injuries in his final two seasons and if it impacted his draft process:
“My junior year was actually my first senior year. That was my fourth year at Princeton. Then following the injuries that caused me to only play two games, I took a medical redshirt. My senior year this past season was my fifth year. The reason for the missed time those two seasons were due to two foot operations I had to get, which in actuality were non-football related. They were correction surgeries on my feet of issues that I have had since I was born. It was kind of my job and my agent’s job through this whole process to [clarify that] with teams since a lot of teams thought I was injury prone because of my feet. The reality was and is that those surgeries were going to happen and had to happen, whether or not I was a football player. They were setbacks, yes, and I would have liked to play more games in my final two seasons, but the reality was that I had to make good on the time I was given when I was healthy, and it turns out that it was enough.”
On his studies at Princeton:
“I went to Princeton to play football and to study engineering. I knew it was actually one of the only places in the country where I could do both for four years. Princeton is a place where 30 percent of its undergrads are athletes, but Princeton does a very good job of accommodating student-athletes of all majors. I knew I wanted to be an engineer or study engineering so I went to Princeton because I knew that I could follow that education path and play football at a high level.”
On clarifying his foot issues from birth:
“The foot injuries that I did have that caused me to miss time in my final two seasons were not injuries but rather were things I was born with. The condition was an unclosed growth plate at the base of my fifth metatarsal of my foot, which is my pinky toe on each side. When I was done growing, which was right around two years ago, those growth plates could not close and because of that, it caused a lot of pain and discomfort. I needed corrective surgery on both sides, but they were non-football related. What happened was they happened to occur while I was playing football so people assumed that they were sports injuries whereas in reality, they were corrective surgeries I was going to need to have regardless of whether or not I was playing football.”
On the Princeton-Harvard rivalry and the Browns’ Harvard personnel:
“I can guarantee you one thing: Anybody who goes to Princeton does not like Harvard and anybody who goes to Harvard goes not like Princeton. It has nothing to do with the guys. It has everything to do the name of the school. I can’t speak for any particular guys, but I will say whenever we step on the field with Harvard, whenever our basketball team steps on the court with Harvard and the football team is there supporting, we want to win every single time. That’s just the way the Ivy League is wired.”
On starting his career at WR and when he transitioned to TE:
“I always played primarily wide receiver at Princeton from 2011 when I started all the way through 2015 this year. The type of offense we run there is a spread offense with an H-back adjuster who really can play out wide in the slot with him and down at tight end or even in the backfield. That guy as the year went along became me because I was a bigger wide out who could put my hand in the ground and play tight end. To answer your question, I was always kind of in that role. I was doing tight end in various amounts depending on the year. I was always used as a hybrid tight end/wide receiver so to say that I’m making a transition from wide receiver to tight end isn’t extremely accurate because I’ve been doing both really since 2012, which was my sophomore year.”
On if his feet are completely healed from the surgeries:
“That’s correct. I had the first one done in 2014 and the second one done in 2015. The deal with corrective surgery, unlike orthopedic surgery, is when the surgery is done and you’ve recovered, you’re better than you were previously. My feet are better than they’ve been in two years, and I’ll be ready to go.”
On if he’s close to getting his engineering degree:
“Yeah, I’m currently, as you could say, done with my degree, and I’ll have my diploma in mechanical and aerospace engineering in May.”
On if he interacted with the Browns during the pre-draft process:
“Yes, I did, most notably with (tight ends) Coach (Greg) Seamon, the tight ends coach, who came to Princeton a couple of weeks ago. We spent the better part of the morning together talking a lot of football and talking a lot personally. We had a great visit.”
