Patriots release David Andrews: Landing spots for center as New England moves on from longtime team captain

The New England Patriots‘ offseason overhaul under new head coach Mike Vrabel continues with the release of 10-year veteran and two-time Super Bowl champion center David Andrews, the team announced Thursday.

“David Andrews’ career success is a shining example of what every NFL prospect should strive to achieve,” Patriots owner Robert Kraft said in a statement. “As a rookie free agent, David earned a starting assignment at center in his NFL debut, a position he anchored for the next decade. His leadership, work ethic, and dedication to the team earned him the respect and admiration of his coaches and teammates, who elected him as an eight-time team captain. The importance of his leadership during his career cannot be overstated. David is a true professional, and his impact on this organization will be felt for many years to come. On behalf of the entire Kraft family and the New England Patriots, I want to express my deepest gratitude for his countless contributions, and we look forward to celebrating his remarkable career.”  

Andrews, an eight-time team captain, only played in four games last season after suffering a season-ending shoulder injury in Week 4 that required surgery. The 32-year-old has started 121 of his 124 career games played in nine years and did start all 17 games for New England in 2023. He did miss the 2019 season with a pulmonary embolism, but bounced back to return to play in 2020. Releasing Andrews will save the Patriots $2.676 million, a small number considering New England currently has $93.1 million in effective cap space, the most in the NFL, according to OverTheCap.com. 

Over the course of his career, the 6-foot-2, 300-pound center made the leap from being undrafted in 2015 to being a nine-year starter.  Andrews went undrafted out of the University of Georgia mostly because teams thought he was too short and stout to be a strong center in the NFL. It’s likely New England will search for Andrews’ replacement in the draft. 

Should Andrews decide to continue his NFL career for a 10th season, here are a few landing spots for the veteran center.

The Texans had significant offensive line issues in 2024, allowing the ninth-most quarterback pressure (36.7% quarterback pressure rate), which led to a Year 2 regression for 2023 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year quarterback C.J. Stroud. Perhaps Houston could move 2023 sixth-round Jarrett Patterson to guard and/or bring in Andrews to compete with Patterson or to show him the ropes for a year.

The Falcons just lost center Drew Dalman in free agency to the Chicago Bears after he was signed away on a three-year, $42 million deal. Atlanta doesn’t have a ton of remaining cap space, but perhaps Andrews is open to taking a discount to play for his hometown team.

Dallas selected Cooper Beebe in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft and then moved him to center, a position in which he’s never taken a snap at during a game in college at Kansas State. His rookie year was up and down, but he finished 2024 trending in the general right direction. New head coach Brian Schottenheimer hired Beebe’s K-State offensive line coach Conor Riley to be the Cowboys’ new offensive line coach, so there’s a chance Beebe could be moved to right guard to fill the void created by future Hall of Famer Zack Martin’s retirement. If that is the case, perhaps Dallas signs another veteran to a cost-effective, one-year deal in Andrews to buy the Cowboys time to figure out their long-term future at the center position. 

Incumbent center Luke Wattenburg’s 64.3 Pro Football Focus offensive grade ranked 18th in the NFL, so maybe Sean Payton brings in Andrews to mentor him and show him how it’s done for a year.