New England Patriots linebacker Elandon Roberts is probably the hardest hitter on the team. And so Bill Belichick has been taking advantage of that skillset on both sides of the ball.

Roberts has been contributing as a fullback in the weeks since the Patriots placed James Develin and Jakob Johnson on injured reserve. New England used Roberts on four snaps during the Patriots’ 13-9 win over the Cowboys in Week 12 and seven snaps in New England’s 17-10 win over the Eagles in Week11.

“Elandon’s got a very physical style of play, and he’s got a good skill set,” Belichick said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters. “He can run. He’s a very compact guy with good lower-body strength and leverage and power. I think we’ve all seen that on the defensive side of the ball and in the kicking game. We lost a couple fullbacks here on our roster with James Develin and Jak, so we’ve used Elandon some at fullback. He had a big block in the (Dallas) game at the end of the game in the four-minute offense — probably one of the best blocks we’ve had all year.”

The linebacker, nicknamed “The Hammer” in his rookie season, has graduated to delivering blows to both offensive and defensive players. Here’s a look at the two blocks Belichick highlighted on the conference call.

The offseason wasn’t kind to Roberts. The Patriots got linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley back from injury, and Jamie Collins rejoined the team in free agency. Through no fault of his own, Roberts ended up buried on the depth chart. As a result, Roberts’ snap count on defense is way down. He received 41% of defensive snaps at linebacker in 2018, but is down to 23% in 2019. But that hasn’t stopped him from contributing in his first year as a team captain. His special teams contributions are up from 17% in 2018 to 35% in 2019. And of course, he’s gotten snaps on offense.

“He does everything you ask him to do,” McDaniels said. “What a great teammate. That’s why he’s a captain. He’s a good player, and he’s a great teammate. He’s unselfish. We’ve asked him to play a lot of different roles. I think he played in the kicking game a number of snaps, on defense, on offense — whatever he can do to help the team. He’s got a great attitude. He’s physical. He’s aggressive. He loves contact and hitting, and he made a few really important blocks that would have made James Develin very proud towards the end of the (Cowboys) game there. We have a lot of confidence in him in that (personnel) grouping.”