Patriots Trade Center Bryan Stork to Washington for Draft Pick

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Joe Calabro, GoLocalWorcester Sports Team

Bryan Stork

The New England Patriots traded center Bryan Stork to the Washington Redskins for a conditional 7th round draft pick on Wednesday .

"It's tough to see one of your guys go like that, but that's the business I guess," said Patriots quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

It was originally reported that the Patriots had released Stork, however, the report was later adjusted.

Wow. #Patriots didn’t cut C Bryan Stork after all… they traded him to the #Redskins, source said. That was unexpected.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 24, 2016

The #Patriots traded C Bryan Stork to the #Redskins in exchange for a conditional draft pick, source said. Deal being worked out now.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 24, 2016

Stork was drafted by the Patriots in the 4th round of the 2014 NFL Draft out of Florida State and was center when New England won the Super Bowl over Seattle later that season.

However, last season he only played in 8 regular season games because of a concussion, giving rookie David Andrews the chance to play.

The Patriots went 10-0 with Andrews starting at center last season, but Stork was given his job back when he came off of injured reserve.

Training Camp Battle

In this season's training camp, Stork entered in a battle with Andrews for the starting center position and the two split reps during Spring OTA's and early on in training camp.

Stork then suffered another concussion and missed an entire week of practice, giving Andrews the advantage.

Last week while practicing with the Chicago Bears, Stork was thrown out of practice by head coach Bill Belichick for punching a Bears player in the throat.

David Andrews

David Andrews

Andrews was signed be the Patriots as a rookie free agent out of Georgia on May 8, 2015 and appeared in 14 regular season games while starting 11 of them for the Patriots last season.

In Training Camp, Andrews has started both preseason game

"David has been doing a great job this camp. The whole line as a whole, it's a good group of guys. No one gets mixed and matched more than those guys do. To be able to work with different people all the time, you're getting adjusted to them, they're getting adjusted to you, it's really a credit to those guys and they all just handle it very well," said Garoppolo.

Behind Andrews, the only other two players on the roster who have seen time at center during camp are Josh Kline and Ted Karras, a 6th round rookie.

Related Slideshow: 5 Takeaways From the Patriots 23-22 Preseason Win Over Chicago

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Where was Brady?

Tom Brady was supposed to play in Thursday nights game, as multiple reports indicated hours before kick off.

However, he did not end up playing and according to Comcast Sportsnet it was because he sliced his right thumb open with scissors while trying to get something out of the bottom of his cleats.

"I made a decision before the game to just play Jimmy and Jacoby," said Bill Belichick after the game when asked about what happened.

This was the last chance for Brady to play at Gillette Stadium before serving his suspension, and a good chance that this was the only preseason game he was going to play.

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Jacoby Brissett

If Garoppolo goes down, right now it is on rookie Jacoby Brissett to carry the load.

Brissett came into the game in the third quarter and went 9 of 13 for 87 yards while taking 3 sacks and losing 9 yards.

When watching Brissett, it's obvious that he has the foot speed if he needs it and he has the arm to get the ball down the field.

It will just be a matter of getting more reps in game action and in practice.

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LeGarrette Blount

After a unimpressive performance in the first preseason game (9 carries for 20 yards), and a week of practice in which first team reps were taken away from him, LeGarrette Blount responded with 11 carries for 69 yards and a touchdown.

Blount's longest run was 21 yards in which he was able to make multiple defenders miss 1-on-1. Blount cut well the entire night, something we did not see against the Saints.

On a side note, the offensive line did a much better job of opening holes for the running game.

One concern, and this is not just Blount but just in general, the Patriots had first and goal from the Chicago 3-yard line and on three straight runs, they could not punch it in.

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Offensive Line

David Andrews made the start at center while Nate Solder bounced back from a tough game against the Saints.

Jimmy Garoppolo was not sacked once in the game, the one time the Bears thought they had him, the play was called back on a hold.

The O-line was also a factor in the running game, helping to create holes and push the defense backwards.

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Jimmy Garoppolo

Jimmy Garoppolo got off to a slow start for the second straight game, going three and out on the first drive was impressive the rest of the way.

The third year backup played the entire first half and one series into the third quarter going 16 for 21 for 181 yards and a touchdown pass.

2-Minute Drill

Garoppolo's most impressive stretch came in the final minutes of the half when the Patriots got the ball back with 1:42 left and all three time outs.

On the drive, Garoppolo went 5 of 7 for 57 yards and capped it off with a 16 yard touchdown pass over the middle to A.J. Derby. He then hit receiver Chris Hogan for the two point conversion and gave the Patriots a 17-11 lead.