Cole Strange said he is ready to start at center this week if the Patriots need him on Saturday. Ben Brown, New England’s starter, is in the concussion protocol. Greg M. Cooper/Associated Press
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — With starter Ben Brown in concussion protocol, it’s a good bet either Cole Strange or Lecitus Smith will be under center for the New England Patriots against the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday.
If Strange gets the call, he says he’ll be ready to roll. Strange suffered a season-ending knee injury last year and active for the first time this season in the Patriots’ 24-21 loss to the Bills on Sunday.
“I’m fired up for the opportunity, honestly,” Strange said Thursday. “I feel like I’ve been working for this for a year now. And I’m just excited for the opportunity, really.”
Patriots coach Jerod Mayo said that the timeline for Brown to return is “out of our hands,” since he is the concussion protocol. Strange and Smith are the only two centers on the roster.
“You think about those guys, and they got to be ready to go,” Mayo said.
Strange, who has mostly been used as a guard, has been working and practicing at center all year. He played the position in college at Chattanooga.
Strange feels he has had enough preparation and is prepared to snap the ball to quarterback Drake Maye.
“The position I’m in, is really no different than the position that a lot of guys across the league are in, coming back from injury,” Strange said. “Maybe they’ve had a week or so of practice, I’ve had multiple weeks.
“I’m in a new position, so I’m still sort of figuring it out, but I’ve had plenty of time … I feel very prepared. We still got a couple more days, but I feel good, I feel good physically, the knees feel healthy.”
In coordinator Alex Van Pelt’s offense, the center calls the protections. Strange wasn’t sure what the tougher challenge would be, the physical or the mental part of playing the position.
“I think the mental part is … I feel like it’s kind of simple, but not easy, once you learn it,” he said. “At first it feels complicated, because there’s a lot of stuff. But once you kind of figure out the basic rules, it feels simple.”
MAYE’S BOTCHED LATERAL to Rhamondre Stevenson deep in Patriots’ territory in the fourth quarter was a pivotal play in the loss to the Bills.
Maye dropped back, threw a backward pass to Stevenson, who couldn’t handle the pass. Buffalo’s Taron Johnson picked up the ball in the end zone to give the Bills a 21-14 lead.
Asked specifically if he felt it was a good play call deep in his territory — the Patriots faced a 2nd-and-8 from the 12-yard line — Van Pelt defended the call.
“It’s a very safe play,” Van Pelt said Thursday. “It’s a kick-it-out to the back with a lead blocker.”
Only, it resulted in a lateral that went awry. That was one of three turnovers in the game, all coming in the second half.
Van Pelt said toward Maye, Stevenson, and offensive tackle Demontrey Jacobs all made mistakes on the play.
“That was a difficult one. We really had three errors on the play and they were all critical. To not have one of those, we may have survived the down,” Van Pelt said. “We were a little fast throwing the lateral. We were expecting that to be a forward pass. We ask our guys to cut the (defensive) end to that side. We didn’t get his hands down, that’s No. 2. And then our back … we lost a little ground on the wide route … so those three got us in a crucial play in the game.”
