Bedard: Patriots' plans at center have completely imploded & season may rest on David Andrews

The Patriots' season may squarely rest on the health of center David Andrews.

That's not hyperbole. That's a fact, after a lack of moves in the offseason and recent developments that have left the backup center position completely barren.

Even worse: the Patriots entered the offseason with backup center as a big priority.



The Patriots' backup center position was already in flux to start the offseason when Ted Karras — who was average overall (good pass blocker) but not a one-for-one swap with Andrews in terms of athletic ability in the team's running scheme – left for the Dolphins in free agency (and $450,000 more guaranteed money than Cam Newton, by the way).

The only other center on the roster in 2019 was James Ferentz, and that wasn't going to happen again ... unless the team was completely desperate.

So the Patriots set a course into this offseason knowing that they, a) had a starter in Andrews who was coming back from missing an entire season with blood clots in his lungs during a pandemic when he could be considered a higher risk, and b) they needed to prepare for any scenario and to have an answer — hopefully better than Karras, since that didn't go all that well — if Andrews could not go the whole season, or played at a lower level. This was clear to everyone, including those in the building.



With that in mind, the Patriots completely sat out free agency at the center position, including with six players who signed for $1 million or less.

No problem, there was still the draft. But then the team waited until the seventh round to take a marginal prospect in Dustin Woodard.



This went completely against the pre-draft determinations of the coaches and front office. Grabbing a viable backup center as an alternative to Andrews, or at least to understudy, was a big priority. Instead, Bill Belichick prioritized kicker (fifth round), guard (two sixth-round picks despite having Joe Thuney and Shaq Mason) and special teams linebacker (third of three sixth-round picks).

If you ask offensive coaches and scouts before the draft what their pecking order for help was, it was something along the line of tight end, athletic fullback and backup center — and they really could have been in any order. That's how much the center position was a priority after last season.

Yet center came in dead last when it came to finding help in the draft.

Then things got much worse.

The draft left the Patriots with Najee Toran as the top internal candidate to backup Andrews, until Woodard proved himself ready as a rookie, which was far from a sure thing with limited on-field practice due to Covid-19.

Then Toran opted-out.

And Woodard decided he didn't want to play football anymore.

The team re-signed Tyler Gauthier, who was an undrafted free agent last year who couldn't beat out Ferentz at any point on the roster.

That's it.

With two-plus days until the team starts the only 14 padded practices they'll get before the regular season, the Patriots have only Andrews and Gauthier at center.

If you would have told the Patriots that would be the case back in March, the collective answer would have been, "No way ... we talked about this all offseason. We needed to fix backup center. There's no way we would enter the season with LESS than we had last year."

Yet here they are.

Now the Patriots almost have to keep Thuney (that was probably happening after the opt-outs and cap space didn't become as much of an issue) because he is the emergency center.

The only other option the Patriots have is sixth-round pick Michael Ownenu, but the team is also thin at guard.

In short, center beyond Andrews is a mess.

He better stay healthy, or things could get a whole lot worse real fast.

And it could have been avoided.