Background

Derek Rivers was born in Augusta, Maine. When he was just five months old, his family decided to make a move to North Carolina. Rivers went to classes at Kinston High School in Kinston. After graduating from high school, he went on to Fork Union Military Academy to study for a single year.

Career

For his college football career, Rivers played college football at Youngstown State. Rivers played for his college from 2013 to 2016. During his successful football college career, he had a school record of 41 career sacks, including 14 as a senior player.

At Youngstown, he gathered 56.5 tackles for loss, 47 QB hurries and 119 solo tackles. As a senior college student, Rivers lead one of the top statistically rated defenses in the FCS to the National Championship. Even though they got to the top, they would end up losing to James Madison University 24-14.

After leaving college, Rivers was drafted by the New England Patriots in the third round, 83rd overall, in the 2017 NFL Draft. When he was in training camp, Rivers suffered a torn ACL and was ruled out for the start of the season.