Patriots land fourth ‘Player of the Week’ award of 2025

For the fourth time in 12 weeks, a New England Patriots player has been given 'AFC Player of the Week' honors by the NFL. This time, it's kicker Andy Borregales getting the nod as the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week. The NFL announced Borregales and the rest of the player of the week winners for Week 12 early Wednesday afternoon.

Borregales played a pivotal role in the Patriots' 26-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. He hit all four of his field goal attempts, connecting from 19, 41, 45, and 52 yards. That 52-yarder was a crucial kick with 1:51 to go in the game, forcing the Bengals to need a touchdown instead of a field goal on their final drive. Adding in extra points, Borregales accounted for 14 of the Patriots' points.

This game continued what's been a strong rookie season for Borregales. After a shaky first two weeks he's been excellent, hitting 15-of-16 field goals since. For the year he's hit 19 of his 21 field goals and 33 of 35 extra points. His 90 points rank sixth in the league.

The Patriots have now had three separate players win AFC Special Team Player of the Week this season. Marcus Jones won in Week 4 after his monster punt return performance, and Antonio Gibson got the nod in Week 4 following his kickoff return touchdown.

On top of that the Patriots have also had one Defensive Player of the Week winner. K'Lavon Chaisson got the nod in Week 7 when he had two sacks and a scoop-and-score against the Tennessee Titans.

Prior to this season, the Patriots hadn't had a Player of the Week winner since 2022. That season they had five total, with two special teams wins with Jones and kicker Nick Folk, and three on defense in Matthew Judon, Kyle Dugger, and Joshua Uche. The last time they had three special teams winners in a season was 2020, when Folk won twice and Gunner Olszewski won once.