How David Andrews Is Helping Groom Potential Patriots Successor

FOXBORO, Mass. -- David Andrews has been the Patriots' primary starting center since 2016. A seven-time team captain, he's one of the team's longest-tenured players, and one of its most consistent.

Twelve games into the 2023 campaign, Andrews is the only New England player who's played 100% of snaps on offense or defense.

But Andrews turns 32 this summer and has one year remaining on his contract. He's much closer to the end of his highly successful Patriots career than the beginning.

So, with its first pick on Day 3 of the 2023 NFL Draft, New England drafted his potential successor: Troy's Jake Andrews at No. 107 overall.

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Some NFL players might bristle at a team drafting or signing their potential replacement. But David Andrews hasn't shunned his young position mate. He's mentored him.

Andrews, one of the few remaining holdovers from the Tom Brady glory years, spoke at length last week about how he's helped the rookie adjust to the NFL game.

"Jake played a lot of center, so it wasn't like, 'Hey, this is how you snap the ball,' " Andrews said. "He understood it. But it was like, 'Hey, make sure you're consistent in the same spot.' The towel. There really wasn't much change in that. That's really during training camp. And then once we get into it, Jake does a really good job. I really appreciate how he's come in. I think he's gotten a lot better.

"Now, it's more like, hey, you're starting to get everything playbook-wise, all this stuff. Now let's start focusing on, 'Hey, your hand on that set wasn't very good.' 'You saw how good you did it on this one; it's because of X, Y, Z.' 'You got beat on this rep; now you see you did it right this time, did it wrong this time.' Or, 'How are guys in practice attacking you? Where are your weaknesses?'

"And I think as you get older -- and I know I learned -- you try to figure that out each week: What am I not good at? What is this guy good at, and how does that compare? How are guys going to try to attack me? How are they going to try to attack us as a unit? What are our strengths and weaknesses? You try to pass that stuff along."

Jake Andrews appreciates the guidance. The 24-year-old got an early introduction to the Patriots' system in college -- his position coach at Troy, Cole Popovich, was a former New England O-line coach -- and tries to model his game after the man he's currently backing up.

"I've been able to learn a lot from (David Andrews)," the rookie told NESN.com. "He's obviously given me some pointers, which have been very helpful, but the thing that I've probably learned from him the most is just being able to sit back and kind of watch him. He kind of sat me down and told me about his routine and stuff like that.

"And then when we're in there watching film, I watch him, because we play the same position, and I just try to model my game after him. He's obviously had a lot of success here and been in the same system for a long time."

David Andrews' durability this season has turned this into something of a redshirt year for Jake Andrews.

The fourth-round pick has yet to play an official offensive snap at the NFL level despite being active for every game. He's played just 32 snaps total, with all of those coming on field goals and extra points. Fellow rookie linemen Sidy Sow and Atonio Mafi, both of whom were drafted after Andrews, have played 494 and 324 offensive snaps, respectively.

But he believes this learning experience will pay off when his opportunity does come, whenever that is.

"It's been awesome," Andrews said. "Hopefully, it helps me out for a long time, and I really appreciate it."