The long-time team captain will be placed on injured reserve.
Update 10/2/2014: Patriots captain David Andrews to undergo season-ending shoulder surgery
After some speculation about David Andrews’ timeline in regards to surgery on his injured shoulder, New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo provided some clarity on Wednesday morning: the team captain will undergo surgery now, be placed on injured reserve, and likely miss the remainder of the 2024 NFL season.
Original story 10/2/2014: David Andrews facing decision on shoulder surgery, but timeline for Patriots captain still unclear
David Andrews will have a decision to make about how to handle the shoulder injury that knocked him out of Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers.
Two options are on the table for the New England Patriots’ starting center, as first reported by Mark Daniels of MassLive: surgery now or surgery later.
The first of those options would knock Andrews out for the remainder of 2024, and in turn rob the Patriots of one of their most valuable players just four games into the season. The second option, on the other hand, would mean playing through the ailment while risking that a setback might also endanger his 2025 campaign.
Even if he decides to go the second route, Andrews would be unlikely to suit up for the Patriots’ game against the visiting Miami Dolphins this week. In turn, backup Nick Leverett is expected to get his first start since joining the team as a free agent in March.
Andrews, meanwhile, will take his time to decide his future with both the 2024 and 2025 seasons in mind, according to the Boston Herald’s Andrew Callahan.
An eight-time captain, Andrews has appeared in a combined 136 regular season and playoff games with 131 starts over the course of his 10-year career in the NFL. The two-time Super Bowl champion played every offensive snap last season, and picked up right where he left off before exiting the Patriots’ 30-13 loss in San Francisco in the first quarter.
“Being hurt is a very frustrating thing, especially when you want to be out there playing,” he said on his Quick Snap podcast earlier this week. “As a player, sometimes you have to make decisions if you being out there is the best thing for the team, and if you can perform.”
Losing Andrews for any extended period of time would be yet another blow to the Patriots’ much-maligned offensive line, and the team’s veteran leadership. Linebacker and fellow team captain Ja’Whaun Bentley was reportedly already lost for the year in Week 2 because of a torn pectoral muscle.
The Patriots will host the Dolphins at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, Oct. 6, at 1 p.m. ET.