David Andrews has played in all but two games since his rookie season in 2015 and has carved out his spot as the center of the Patriots line for the foreseeable future. A few of the guys he’s played alongside, however, have moved on from the core group that helped the team win Super Bowl LI and come within a stone’s throw a year later in Super Bowl LII.

Nate Solder took over as the starting left tackle after the Matt Light retired, admirably filling the shoes of one the team’s greatest offensive linemen. Since his departure for the New York Giants it’s become clear that he was at the emotional center of the locker room — a beloved and respected guy who was as good a teammate as he was a player. Now entering his fourth season, and his first without Solder, Andrews admits that Solder’s absence is felt.

“You know, it’s tough. Nate was such a good person to me, a good leader, a guy I looked up to and learned a lot from,” said Andrews. “You know, the time I was here, the guy did it the right way. And just seeing how he carried himself with everything he dealt with outside of this building, I have the utmost respect for him.”

Andrews went on to acknowledge that while it’s difficult, it’s a reality of playing in the league and it’s something they have to put behind them if they’re going to move forward.

“Unfortunately, the NFL is a business at the end of the day and it happens. We’ve been pretty fortunate to kind of be a single group kind of my three years here and stuff like that. So, that was definitely tough, but at the end of the day, it’s going to happen and I think it just – everyone’s got to come in, we’ve got to go to work and you can’t sit around. Life’s got to move on, and that’s what we’re planning to do.”

As it stands right now, there are a lot of new faces in the group of offensive lineman — but there are also plenty of holdovers from the starting group over last few seasons. Outside of Solder, the entire starting line from 2017 remains in New England, including Marcus Cannon, Shaq Mason and Joe Thuney, with LaAdrian Waddle or any number of the new additions poised to compete for the starting left tackle role.