Patriots Captain Loved What He Saw From Cole Strange Before Injury

Bill Belichick believes Cole Strange was playing his "best football" before suffering a knee injury last Sunday, and David Andrews agrees.

Strange was reluctantly carted off during the first half of New England's home loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. A day later, the second-year guard was placed on season-ending injured reserve.

It was a rollercoaster season for Strange, who suffered a knee injury during the Patriots' first padded practice of training camp. He returned early in the season but clearly was less than 100%, and later dealt with a different leg injury.

Andrews offered his thoughts on the 2022 first-round pick while meeting with reporters Wednesday.

"You have these years of football where they're up and down, and you're healthy, you're not healthy," Andrews said during a news conference. "I've had them personally. ... Obviously, it happened in training camp with him. You miss a lot of that from no one's fault, just literally the first rep in pads (when Strange injured his knee) or whatever it was. He fought his way back, then kind of got banged up again, then fought his way back.

"I thought we were stringing together some better football. Doing some things better. A lot of that was Cole improving, getting better -- which you want to do throughout the year. And I thought he was doing a really good job of that of late. Obviously, just kind of a terrible accident. Part of the game. But he's a tough kid. I know he's gonna do everything he can to get back to it. If anyone can do it, he obviously can."

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As of early Thursday afternoon, there weren't any updates on the specifics of Strange's injury and his recovery timeline. All we knew was he'd miss the rest of his sophomore season.

Rookie Atonio Mafi is primed to start in Strange's place when New England visits the Denver Broncos on Sunday.