David Andrews will undergo surgery, be placed on injured reserve and likely will not return in the 2024-25 season.
Head coach Jerod Mayo confirmed the news Wednesday morning.
"He's a guy who he's been a captain here," he said. "He has great leadership abilities. Tough. He's able to communicate across the front. It's definitely a huge loss."
"I would say, start with knowledge of the game," said Jacoby Brissett of what the Pats will miss with Andrews out. "He runs the show out there. I'm kinda just a co-host when he's out there. His toughness. I don't think people know how tough he is. The things he's battled. ... His play just speaks for itself. He's up there with the top guys in the league."
Speaking on 'The Quick Snap,' a podcast Andrews hosts with former Patriot Brian Hoyer, the 32-year-old center didn't reveal the nature of the injury. Andrews weighed trying to play through the injury, but if he did so, it could have cost him a sizable part of the 2025-26 season, the final year of his contract.
"First of all, it's frustrating," he said. "Being hurt is a very frustrating thing. And you know, especially when you want to be out there playing, and as a player, sometimes you have to make decisions if you being out there is the best thing for the team sometimes, and if you can perform."
Andrews clearly didn't feel that way quickly in San Francisco, giving way to backup Nick Leverett, who did a nice job in his absence.
This is Andrews' 10th year in the league, although technically, he has played only nine seasons after missing the entirety of the 2019 campaign with blood clots. After his rookie year, where he got jerked around by Bill Belichick and lost his starting job to Bryan Stork, Andrews has been incredibly durable, playing in at least 14 games a season in six of the last seven seasons.
He spoke about the process he had to go through upon his return to Foxborough and the mental and physical challenge he faced after arriving home sometime after 4 a.m.
"You're up there Monday morning because, right, got to get MRIs," he recounted. "Like, unless you break a bone, tear a ligament, yeah, like, bad ligament (tear), or concussion (during the game), like, there's so much unknown because you got to get MRIs, you got to talk to doctors. And then obviously, you get two hours of sleep Sunday night (and) you're up there Monday morning, laying in an MRI machine.
"Then you go talk to doctors, talk to other doctors, and you're just trying to put everything together ... You're not in the right frame of mind because you're - like I said - you're going off two hours sleep. You're pissed off. Then you get some news Monday; whether you like the news or not, you've got to get news. And so it's a lot..."
Andrews' absence is a massive blow for a team already hemorrhaging on the offensive line. The guy you thought could be your left tackle (Chuka Okorafor) is no longer here, likely retiring. The rookie you hoped to bring along at that spot, Caedan Wallace, left the locker room on crutches Sunday, and the kid that won the job in the summer, Vederian Lowe, can't stay on the field either, missing his second straight game with a knee problem. Additionally, Michael Jordan, who filled in so nicely for Sidy Sow when Sow was out for a month, didn't make the trip to SF because of his own injury. So yes, the Pats were at critical mass before Andrews went down. Now this? Yuck.
Andrews is responsible for far more in the West Coast scheme than he was in the Josh McDaniels/Bill O'Brien/Whatever the hell you want to call what Patricia and Judge did systems. Those systems put a lot more weight on the quarterback calling out protections. This one does not, which likely adds to the burden Leverett will carry against the Dolphins.