David Andrews believes the New England Patriots are building something special, and he wants to be a part of it.
In his first public comments since re-signing with the Patriots last week, Andrews said his desire to help New England bounce back from its 7-9 finish in 2020 helped inspire him to stay put.
“I think it’s definitely the start of turning this thing around,” Andrews said in an interview with Patriots radio commentator Scott Zolak when asked about the team’s flurry of free agent additions. “Part of the reason why I wanted to come back was to right this ship and get it to where we need to be going. But it’s all kind of said and done if we don’t put the work in, go back there, get this thing rolling, build on it and just become the best team we can be.”
Andrews initially was expected to leave the Patriots, but the veteran center ultimately chose to re-sign on a four-year contract after exploring his options in free agency. Fellow team captains James White and Lawrence Guy followed a similar path, re-upping with New England after receiving interest from other teams.
“We’re definitely excited (to be back), me and my wife,” Andrews told Zolak. “This is our home. Our heart’s here. (I’m) excited to get back and go to work. Obviously a lot of new faces coming in, and then we’ve got the rookies coming in, so I’m excited to get back, meet everybody and get this train rolling.”
The Patriots lost left guard Joe Thuney to the Kansas City Chiefs in free agency and traded right tackle Marcus Cannon to the Houston Texans, but they added two familiar faces to their O-line in tackle Trent Brown and center/guard Ted Karras.
“I think we made a pretty good addition to our offensive line between (Brown and) Ted,” Andrews told Zolak. “We’ve got Mike (Onwenu) coming back, Shaq (Mason), obviously, Isaiah (Wynn). So we’ve got a really good group of guys. But now we’ve just got to go to work and build this thing again. That’s part of it every year, but it’s good to have a lot of familiarity in the room and kind of know how we operate.”
The Patriots have been extremely busy since NFL free agency officially opened last week, adding a total of 14 veterans through free agency or trades. They’ve also re-signed nine of their own free agents, including Andrews, White, Guy, defensive end Deatrich Wise, kicker Nick Folk and quarterback Cam Newton.
