After A Sidelined 2019, Patriots Captain David Andrews Clears His Path Back

The New England Patriots traversed through 2019 without David Andrews lined up between the guards.

Doctors discovered blood clots in the 27-year-old center’s lungs during his hospitalization last August. Medication followed. And by the 53-man roster deadline on Labor Day weekend, New England had officially placed Andrews on injured reserve.

“I still came into work every day, but I wasn’t out there competing with the guys,” Andrews told reporters on a video conference Tuesday. “I wasn’t out there working with them, and you miss that. You miss that part of it. It makes you appreciative of the times, and that’s tough.”

Andrews remained in attendance for practices and games he wasn’t cleared to take the field for. But the 6-foot-3, 300-pound Georgia product announced during last month’s NFL draft that he will take the field again in 2020.

Andrews will do so as a tenured presence for head coach Bill Belichick, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, and a New England line that pushes ahead after the retirement of Dante Scarnecchia and exit of quarterback Tom Brady.

“I’m very fortunate that I am able to continue playing this game,” Andrews said. “I’m very appreciative of all the support I received from my family, my friends, my wife, but really the organization as a whole from the Kraft family down to Coach Belichick to Josh, Scar, all the coaches. And then obviously all the doctors, our medical staff, strength staff continuously working with me, to the doctors I had to deal with, the time they spent with me, the questions, a lot of phone calls.”

Andrews has made 66 career starts, including three Super Bowls, since signing with the Patriots as an undrafted free agent in 2015. The former Rimington Trophy finalist and Bulldogs MVP has served as a team captain for each of the past three seasons.

New England turned to top reserve Ted Karras, now a member of the Miami Dolphins, in the absence of Andrews last campaign.

“I kind of got to look at it from a big picture,” said Andrews. “It’s such a grind and it’s such a rush from playing on Sundays, to getting the film corrected, and then moving forward to the next team, and you’ve got a short week or things like that. It’s just a jumping around of a season. To be able to just kind of take a step back and look at the game as a whole and kind of watch football from a different perspective, yeah, there was definitely some good things about it, some fun things. But like I said, as a competitor and a guy who wants to play football, it sucks not being out there.”

Andrews stands with 3,970 snaps in the regular season dating back to his New England arrival. He tied franchise-tagged left guard Joe Thuney for the team lead in 2016, when both logged 99.6% of the offensive workload.

“David has been a great asset to our program, multi-year captain,” Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio said in April after the draft’s first round. “There’s a lot of things that he brings to the table. Nobody worked harder, I would say, in just his capacity in his role last year. He wasn’t playing. The more players and people that we have like David Andrews in the building – good for the Patriots and everybody else.”

Andrews reached a three-year, $9 million extension in the spring of 2017 that featured a $1.6 million signing bonus. He nears the final year of his contract with a $3.4 million cap number that currently ranks 15th on the Patriots and 23rd among the league’s centers, according to OverTheCap.com.

He nears it healthy.

“I’m just really looking forward to moving forward and getting back to being a football player again,” Andrews said.