Duke in the NFL - Duke University

DURHAM, N.C. - Four former Blue Devils have made initial 53-man rosters with respective NFL organizations. The 2011 professional season opens this Thursday night.

Duke's longest tenured pro is long snapper Patrick Mannelly, who enters his 14th campaign with the Chicago Bears. The former Blue Devil lineman is the Bears' all-time leader in games played.

Patrick Bailey, who won a Super Bowl title with the Steelers as a rookie in 2008, begins his second year with the Tennessee Titans. A linebacker with 44 career games played to his credit, Bailey finished second on the Titans with 19 special teams tackles in 2010.

Vincent Rey is charted as a third string weakside linebacker with the Cincinnati Bengals. In 2010, Rey spent most of the year on the Bengals' practice squad, but was named to the roster late in the season and was credited with three tackles in two games.

Despite completing 23-of-32 (.719) passes during the pre-season for St. Louis, quarterback Thaddeus Lewis was waived by the Rams on Saturday before being signed by the Cleveland Browns one day later. He joins Colt McCoy and Seneca Wallace in the quarterback group in Cleveland, where Pat Shurmur begins his first season as head coach after serving as the offensive coordinator with the Rams in 2009-10.

"We were probably going to go with two, but we really liked this kid," Browns general manager Tom Heckert told ClevelandBrowns.com. "Pat coached him and we talked about him last year when he was available. We talked about possibly trying to get him. He was a guy we loved in the draft when he came out. He's just a very, very talented kid, very accurate. He's got a strong arm; he's a good athlete. We like everything about the kid and we're really excited to have him."

In addition, former Duke wide receiver Eron Riley was named to the practice squad for the Denver Broncos.

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