Patriots offensive line taking another hit beyond expiring contracts

The New England Patriots‘ resurgence this year was aided by a solid offensive line, as David Andrews and the rest of the guys up front kept Mac Jones protected while opening up running lanes for Damien Harris and Rhamondre Stevenson to aid their smashmouth offense.

The Patriots are lucky to have Andrews, who has consistently flown under the radar despite blocking for some champions and being equally adept in the run and pass game. Andrews was handed a four-year contract last offseason, and he rewarded the Pats with another fine season this year.

Andrews might need to retroactively get even more praise for how he performed in 2021, as he was playing through a serious injury for most of the year. With the season over, Andrews went under the knife with the goal of getting back on the field as soon as possible in 2021.

Andrews had shoulder surgery after playing hurt for most of the year, per Jeff Howe. While the offensive line did take a hit with this operation, the expectation around Andrews at the moment is that he will eventually be ready when training camp rolls around.

Patriots center David Andrews played through a shoulder injury.

Andrews started all 17 games and played 100% of the offensive snaps in 15 of them. The two exceptions were a 50-10 blowout of Jacksonville and Week 18 against Miami where he still played 96% of the snaps. That’s an ironman if we’ve ever seen one as far as interior offensive line play is concerned.

Andrews is playing just a few years after a pulmonary embolism forced him to sit out an entire season in 2019. When you’ve gone through that and still come back just as strong, playing through something like some irritation in the shoulder must seem like a walk in the park.

Andrews posted a picture of him in a sling on his Instagram page, with “surgery shmurgery” as the caption.

As the pic proves, even with some resting and healing on the schedule for the Pats lineman, daycare duties have not stopped for one second. It doesn’t seem like Andrews is worried about his potential status for the opening of Pats training camp.

Andrews has played through some incredibly concerning injuries in order to give the Patriots everything he’s got.

While he might not be as high-profile as some of the names who have come through that locker room over the years, it’s not a stretch to say he numbers among the most respected.