Patriots place Brandon Copeland on injured reserve, designate Cody Davis to return amid series of moves

The New England Patriots sent linebacker Brandon Copeland to injured reserve amid a series of moves made Wednesday.

Copeland suffered a torn pectoral in New England’s 33-6 loss to the San Francisco 49ers at Gillette Stadium. The 29-year-old offseason addition to the linebacker room had started four games this fall, logging a dozen tackles and 80 percent of the work on special teams.

“Brandon’s done a good job to give us some versatility,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said during a video conference earlier in the week. “He’s played for us on all four downs, in the kicking game and some inside linebacker and outside linebacker. So, he’s an experienced player that in our situation will be hard to replace.”

According to the transaction wire, the Patriots have designated safety Cody Davis to return from injured reserve, activated center James Ferentz from the Covid-19 reserve list, and placed rookie tight end Jake Burt on practice squad-injured.

The former two were spotted by reporters during the open portion of practice.

That opened the 21-day window for Davis rejoin to the roster after suffering a rib injury while recovering an onside kick in New England’s September win over the Las Vegas Raiders. Davis, 31, had played 64 snaps in the kicking game prior to then. The ex-Los Angeles Ram and Jacksonville Jaguar recorded three stops and served as the personal punt protector.

And Ferentz, who went on the Covid-19 list midway through October, returns having started one game at center this season in place of captain David Andrews. The 31-year-old Iowa Hawkeyes product started the first two games of his NFL career for the New England offensive line last season. Ferentz has also been a member of the Denver Broncos and Houston Texans since entering the league as an undrafted free agent in 2014.

New England is scheduled to visit the Buffalo Bills for a 1 p.m. ET kickoff Sunday in Orchard Park.