Source: Jeff Demps gets 3-year deal

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London Olympics silver medalist Jeff Demps signed a contract Friday with the New England Patriots.

A source told ESPNBoston.com's Mike Reiss that the deal is for three years.

"To everyone wondering, yes it's true I'm now a new England patriot," Demps tweeted Friday night. "Glad to be apart of the team. It's truly an honor. #Godisgreat.

"Family, friends, fans, coaches just to everyone who supports me I wanna say thanks."

Demps flew to Orlando, Fla., on Friday to meet with his representatives and go over the details of the deal before signing. Several NFL teams, including the New York Jets, were interested in Demps, who was a running back at Florida. He was not drafted in April while he was preparing for the Olympics. He was part of the 4x100-meter relay team that finished second to Jamaica.

The 5-foot-7, 191-pound Demps played in 12 games last season at Florida, rushing for 569 yards and six touchdowns.

He had 31 rushes for more than 20 yards while with the Gators, most in the Southeastern Conference since 2008. He finished his collegiate career with 2,470 yards rushing and 23 touchdowns in four seasons.

Demps also was a standout sprinter for the Gators and is the only Florida athlete to have won a national championship in two sports.

Demps' biggest impact could be on the Patriots' return game, where coach Bill Belichick said Wednesday the team is looking for improvement.

"He had a little bit of production," Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio said. "How that translates over, the schemes are different. Any returner that comes into the NFL, whatever they did in college schematically is probably going to be a lot different than what we're going to ask him to do."

Information from ESPN's John Clayton and ESPNBoston.com's Mike Reiss was used in this report.

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