David Andrews Opens Up About Dealing With Blot Clots

One player that can give a big boost to the New England Patriots' offensive line in 2020 is center David Andrews. He was placed on injured reserve last August after he was diagnosed with blood clots in his lungs, something that kept him sidelined for the entire 2019 season, with the potential of missing more time in the future.

It was a scary situation that hasn't - up until now - been elaborated on by Andrews, who has been fighting to get back on the football field since being placed on IR.

Andrews opened up about back during the summer when he first realized something was wrong with him, and how he handled his troublesome situations right off the bat once he found out his diagnosis.

“I had been dealing with some chest pains and troubling breathing, started coughing blood the first day we reported to training camp actually,” Andrews told 247 Sports. “All of this was partly my fault, just being dumb and pushing through it. I thought I was sick and I really did not feel like myself. It was not like I was having a bad camp. I just was not having a consistent camp.

”Specialist comes out and says I have blood clots, I had no idea what that meant,” Andrews said.”I told the doctor I needed to get back home to let my dogs out, and from that point on, I knew it was serious. They would not let me leave and I spent five nights there. My first call was to my dog walker, actually. Then I had to call my wife and try to explain all of this. She was out of town. I actually called my former UGA teammate Clint Boiling next. He was actually dealing with these this offseason, so I called him immediately because I knew he had dealt with that. He was great and introduced me to a doctor as well. Clint was just great to me. I really had no idea how dangerous it was.”

After a series of tests in February, it was reported that Andrews is on track to play football again in 2020, as he feels like he is in "excellent condition physically". That good news for a Patriots team that just lost out on center Ted Karras, who started the entire 2019 season in place of Andrews but signed with the Dolphins in free agency this offseason.

In 2018, Andrews finished the season with a PFF grade of 74.3. To put that into perspective: if he were to have finished this past season with the same grade, he would have been ranked as PFF's 7th-best center in the NFL. Karras was ranked as their 20th-best guard in the league last season. So, if he is able to return to New England's lineup next season, he will be a tremendous upgrade based on how that unit looked last season.

Here's to Andrews being ready for the 2020 season.