Patriots Rumor LaCanfora: WR Mike Evans and LT Rasheed Walker Could Be On Patriots’ Radar

Real fan 02 said:

Who would we had turned to had lowe not been available? He's even said himself the coaching He's gotten from Marrone has helped him.. I was a main one wanting him dropped off at Logan but he's serviceable and knows the system.. but if you believe there is a better option at back have at it..

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Bad players saying this coach makes me better is not something of value.
Keeping him last year was fine. Paying him 10 mill a year or whatever it will take when there are plenty of other backup JAGS isn’t the best use of resources.
He isn’t 9 million dollars better than a 5th round pick, he’ll he isn’t 9 mill better than Thayer Munford or Bryant

javajunky said:

The rumor of Campbell moving to RT would suggest Moss is considering retirement.

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There is no rumor of Campbell moving to right tackle, that's just fans and media spewing ********. Vrabel put that ******** to rest after the Super Bowl. Campbell is their left tackle, period, end of story.

Triumph said:

Apples and oranges.

Rham fumbling does not get Maye lit up.

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You miss the point. Vrabel showed loyalty to him when most would not, he will do that as well for Campbell.

Joey007 said:

How did he look in that Miami game? Cant really recall.

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That's a good question. I don't remember either, and I don't recall seeing anything when I went back and did the snaps that week, and didn't make any notes on him.

I went back and looked at what was written about him in the media after the game, and Nicole Yang had this:

"1. In his return from injured reserve, rookie left tackle Will Campbell played 76 percent of the offensive snaps. Campbell, along with quarterback Drake Maye, center Garrett Bradbury, and right tackle Morgan Moses, sat for the offense’s final 14 because of the lopsided score.

According to Pro Football Focus, Campbell allowed just one pressure, a quarterback hit, in his 24 pass-blocking snaps.
Campbell acknowledged after the game that he knew he wasn’t going to instantly return to form, but said he felt he improved throughout the game and eventually caught his stride. It was an opportunity for him to get a taste of live action before getting thrust into the playoffs."


Evan Lazar had this:

"Campbell returned from a knee sprain that caused him to miss the Patriots' last four games, allowing just one quarterback pressure in his 43 snaps vs. the Dolphins. Campbell mostly went up against Dolphins edge rusher Bradley Chubb, who came into the game with a team-high 8.5 sacks. On Sunday, Campbell held Chubb in check and also helped spring Stevenson on his 35-yard touchdown run with a 'plus' block at the second level of the defense."


So it looks like he played relatively well in that one.

7

Hugepatsfan said:

I'm firmly in the camp of leaving WC at LT and being encouraged by how he played overall before the injury. So I just want to establish that.

But I absolutely HATE when I see posts like this. He was legitimately GARBAGE against Myles Garrett and down the stretch. To just say that it was against good competition that everyone struggles with and act like it was normal is so disingenuous. Sure, everyone does struggle to some degree against better players but how WC played was just totally unacceptable. That's an "not in this league for long" level of play.

He rebounded in the 2nd half vs. Garrett and I chalk a lot of the late season stuff up to injuries. So again, I want to leave him at LT. But I can't in good faith pretend that his level of play there was just normal for better competition.

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I was being sarcastic.

The last 2 Super Bowls have been decided by dominating Defensive Lines. They controlled the game and OTs were turned into rubble. Just because Vrabel came out and stated that Campbell is staying at LT is meaningless. What else could he say when Vrabel was just trying to take the heat off Campbell and protect his team from criticism. The facts do not change in regards to what happened.

Its a copy cat league, so you're bound to face one of these elite DLs sooner or later vying for a World Championship. The NY Giants are close to having a great DL. Other teams will follow suit.

Campbell can't stay at LT. He is a ticking time bomb if he remains at that position.

Patsfan1645 said:

You miss the point. Vrabel showed loyalty to him when most would not, he will do that as well for Campbell.

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I hope not at the expense of Drake Mayes health.

Triumph said:

I hope not at the expense of Drake Mayes health.

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I hope it doesnt end up getting Drake hurt as well. But I fully expect to see Campbell starting at LT week 1. Will he be the starting tackle in week 17? We shall see.

n1997y said:

We could upgrade the left side by signing both Walker and Jenkins?

Replace Campbell and Wilson with the Packers OL?

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Over 15 games, Love was only sacked 21 times in 2025.

mgteich said:

OK, but I just don't understand bringing back injured players to play in the playoffs in order to order to get experience. Some think that a better strategy in the playoffs is to play the players who are most likely to help win. At the time, and in 100% hindsight, I think that the OL would have been better with Lowe starting instead of Campbell, and Brown starting instead of WIlson.

How does giving Wilson experience in the playoffs at LG help the team?

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I'd say overall, the coach has to have confidence in the guys that got them there and the guys who are the future of their team. Again, I don't know how much Campbell was hampered - that's just me speculating. I will say Campbell's better than Lowe blocking in the run game, and it's possible that played into it. And he obviously did enough in the three games leading up to the Super Bowl for them to win three playoff games.

As for Wilson, that was a tough outing, but I sort of come back to what quite a few people have said since that game. That wasn't an anomaly unique to the Patriots. Seattle did that to everyone all season. Have to just give credit where credit is due there. As frustrating as that is.

Honestly, I don't remember anything horrible with Wilson during the postseason, and obviously, despite missing the final two regular-season games, he also played three games before that last one. The Seahawks defense just played out of their minds that day, and with Maye seemingly hampered, New England never came up with an answer offensively to slow them down. It stinks, but it is what it is.

Patsfan1645 said:

I hope it doesnt end up getting Drake hurt as well. But I fully expect to see Campbell starting at LT week 1. Will he be the starting tackle in week 17? We shall see.

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Id rather fix the problem in training camp and preseason and have Campbell move to another spot.

Ring 6 said:

Lowe won’t be hard to replace. I assume we will draft the 2027 RT this year and he can be the swing tackle in 2026, but there are a lot of tackles that are as good as Lowe. Better to get a young one cheaper than pay Lowe more than his value because he has starts.

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I don't know about that. It's not often you have a guy who can step in and seamlessly fill in, and I don't recall his name being mentioned once throughout the five games he stepped in for Campbell. Good left tackles are tough to come by, and give Lowe credit, he's worked hard and clearly improved under Marrone and has become extremely serviceable. There are teams out there with not great tackle depth, and he'll likely get paid more than the Patriots can afford.

Again, my point is, imagine Campbell going down and someone else having to step in. It's either going to be a veteran no one wants, or a potential draft pick or UDFA who they'll need to develop again. Either way, it's definitely going to be a downgrade.

Triumph said:

Id rather fix the problem in training camp and preseason and have Campbell move to another spot.

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You may but I think Vrabel has other plans.

Not trying to defend Campbell’s play, but I think we have to factor in his knee injury. He obviously wasn’t the same player he was pre injury. Let’s see how he is when he’s 100% healthy. I also blame Vrabel, in that sometimes he can be too loyal, when Campbell came back post injury, if you notice he’s struggling and Maye is getting killed, you have to bring in Lowe.

Vrabel deserved coach of the year, he was incredible in 2025, this was one of the few mistakes Vrabel made all year. Lowe actually played well in Campbell’s place after the injury, and would’ve been an improvement to Campbell playing while injured.

Ring 6 said:

A backup T for cheap $ isn’t a day 1 signing.
He signed Moses last year and drafted Campbell and Bryant.
The bar of being as good as Lowe is not high.

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I feel like you're thinking of it ranking Lowe against NFL starters, which would put him near the bottom. At the same time, you can't underestimate the value of a quality backup left tackle. I don't know who teams have sitting behind their starting LT, but I'd be willing to bet that Lowe would be in the top 10, possibly top 5 among backup left tackles.

I'm not saying they should overpay to keep him. I'm just saying that whoever the next guy is, he definitely won't be as good as Lowe in 2026. Just have to hope Campbell comes back healthy and doesn't miss a game next season so that it's not an issue.

Ring 6 said:

Bad players saying this coach makes me better is not something of value.
Keeping him last year was fine. Paying him 10 mill a year or whatever it will take when there are plenty of other backup JAGS isn’t the best use of resources.
He isn’t 9 million dollars better than a 5th round pick, he’ll he isn’t 9 mill better than Thayer Munford or Bryant

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Munford's a free agent, and I don't know what type of player he is at LT. Bryant might be a factor at RT, which I think he saw time there during the preseason last year.

Agree with you on the amount of money it would take to keep him. Again, my only point is that whoever they replace him with won't be as good next season. Just have to hope Campbell comes back healthy and makes it through the year so that they have time to start developing whoever it is they ultimately bring in for depth if he does indeed move on.

Ian said:

I don't know about that. It's not often you have a guy who can step in and seamlessly fill in, and I don't recall his name being mentioned once throughout the five games he stepped in for Campbell. Good left tackles are tough to come by, and give Lowe credit, he's worked hard and clearly improved under Marrone and has become extremely serviceable. There are teams out there with not great tackle depth, and he'll likely get paid more than the Patriots can afford.

Again, my point is, imagine Campbell going down and someone else having to step in. It's either going to be a veteran no one wants, or a potential draft pick or UDFA who they'll need to develop again. Either way, it's definitely going to be a downgrade.

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I don’t consider Lowe a good T. I don’t think the dropoff, if any, from him to “whoever” would be significant.

Ian said:

I feel like you're thinking of it ranking Lowe against NFL starters, which would put him near the bottom. At the same time, you can't underestimate the value of a quality backup left tackle. I don't know who teams have sitting behind their starting LT, but I'd be willing to bet that Lowe would be in the top 10, possibly top 5 among backup left tackles.

I'm not saying they should overpay to keep him. I'm just saying that whoever the next guy is, he definitely won't be as good as Lowe in 2026. Just have to hope Campbell comes back healthy and doesn't miss a game next season so that it's not an issue.

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As a backup he isn’t ranked high.
Im saying because he has starting experience some team will overpay him and it shouldn’t be us.
Patriot fans know how awful he is and because he didn’t throw up on his shoes for a few games suddenly think he’s good. Another GM will make that mistake.

The NFL season is over, the NFL gossip season has begun.

Ring 6 said:

I don’t consider Lowe a good T. I don’t think the dropoff, if any, from him to “whoever” would be significant.

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How often do you see a backup LT come in and not miss a beat and have the offense be unaffected? I would say that's pretty rare.

Ring 6 said:

As a backup he isn’t ranked high.
Im saying because he has starting experience some team will overpay him and it shouldn’t be us.
Patriot fans know how awful he is and because he didn’t throw up on his shoes for a few games suddenly think he’s good. Another GM will make that mistake.

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I'll disagree with you on the rankings. I haven't dug into it, but I doubt there are many guys out there on anyone's bench that would come in and play as well as Lowe did last season, and I'd have to say he's probably among the top backup LTs in the league. And he'll be paid accordingly, given all the other teams who had trouble at that spot last season.

However, as I said, I agree with you in terms of whether or not they should overpay to keep him. They have too many other needs, and the plan will just have to be on signing a less expensive backup and developing either draft picks or UDFAs. Again, have to just hope that Campbell makes it through 2026 healthy so that it's a non-issue.

Ian said:

I don't know about that. It's not often you have a guy who can step in and seamlessly fill in, and I don't recall his name being mentioned once throughout the five games he stepped in for Campbell. Good left tackles are tough to come by, and give Lowe credit, he's worked hard and clearly improved under Marrone and has become extremely serviceable. There are teams out there with not great tackle depth, and he'll likely get paid more than the Patriots can afford.

Again, my point is, imagine Campbell going down and someone else having to step in. It's either going to be a veteran no one wants, or a potential draft pick or UDFA who they'll need to develop again. Either way, it's definitely going to be a downgrade.

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Ian,

If you look at the big picture we are in a very advantageous position many GMs and Coaches would salivate over.

Ian said:

Munford's a free agent, and I don't know what type of player he is at LT. Bryant might be a factor at RT, which I think he saw time there during the preseason last year.

Agree with you on the amount of money it would take to keep him. Again, my only point is that whoever they replace him with won't be as good next season. Just have to hope Campbell comes back healthy and makes it through the year so that they have time to start developing whoever it is they ultimately bring in for depth if he does indeed move on.

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We have an Elite young QB on his rookie deal your LT in Campbell and and some solid pieces on defense.. some want to just do away with the OL.. there's not some major upgrades out there in FA like many believe. Teams secure thier OL players. We are going to have to coach up the young guys and draft sound players to keep the farm system going strong.