Dan DePalma wants his shot ... anywhere

Just like you can’t spell elite without Eli, you can’t spell Dan DePalma without D. So the wide receiver who was on the practice squad last season (and was one of the Hoboken Six at informal workouts during the lockout last spring) is offering up his services on the other side of the ball.

“I’ve been known to do a little bit of everything,” DePalma said yesterday. “They kind of just flip me around back and forth, put me in any position where they think that I would succeed, so I appreciate them trying to fit me in kind of anywhere. Like I told them, I would do anything that they would need me to do to get on the field. That’s kind of what my role was last year on the practice squad: offense, defense, special teams. I look to do the same this year and contribute any way I can.”

DePalma spent last season mostly shrouded in the anonymity of the practice squad. But he garnered a few headlines during Super Bowl week when it was pointed out that he was playing the role of Wes Welker on the scout team.

“I hoped to do that,” said DePalma, who is 5-11 and 192 pounds. “A lot of the coaches were giving me positive feedback. I was getting open in practice, catching a lot of passes, doing well, really focusing on what Welker would do in a game and I think it definitely helped our defense out. He didn’t make any plays one-on-one against Antrel and he locked him down for the majority of the game. In my mind, I had accomplished my job and hopefully that opened some eyes. I know the coaches saw it on film and at practice every day, so I hope that they realized that I put the work in and I’m ready to step it up to the next level.”

Even if that means spinning around and playing defense.

“I played defense in college as well,” he said of playing strong corner for one year at West Chester (Pa). “It’s not anything out of the realm of possibilities for me. I could do it. Just teach it to me and put me out there and I’ll do it to the best of my abilities.”