Patriots Injury News Campbell Says He's Been Playing with a Torn Ligament in His Knee

[TheRainMaker]

He should've been shut down for the playoffs. He looked like he didn't even belong in the league for the entire playoffs. He's lucky he didn't suffer an even worse injury with his body overcompensating.

This was Vrabel's only bad decision on the season. Wilson was another player that had no business playing in the playoffs.

 

[gobesmug]

Yeah this just makes Vrable look bad IMO. I get that Vrable was a player who probably played through many injuries, but it was clear the Campbell was not getting the job done.

 

[203Pat]

Never really like the "I played with insert injury here" coming off a bad performance in the Super Bowl.

 

[Ian]

then the whole coaching staff needs to be fired lol
you saw him struggling mightily why didn't they just put someone else there? dont even say it was cause he was best option seeing how he was historically bad lmao

I'd have to go back and look, but I don't feel like they ever really lined up a tight end on that side of the line all year, which might have been helpful, especially given what he was dealing with. If you're not going to take him out, you have to try and get him help and I feel like that goes beyond keeping Stevenson in there for blitz pick up.

Although, with the season being over, it's a moot point - but I was still surprised that they never really adjusted yet still kept trying to push the ball downfield.

 

[Rob0729]

Then why didn't they at least try to see if Vederian Lowe could have done better? Lowe did a more than adequate job filling in for Campbell. Why put a less than 100% Campbell out there when they might have gotten more production from Lowe.

If this is the case, I blame Vrabel, McDaniels, and Maronne for the o-line disaster.

 

[Ian]

Then why didn't they at least try to see if Vederian Lowe could have done better? Lowe did a more than adequate job filling in for Campbell. Why put a less than 100% Campbell out there when they might have gotten more production from Lowe.

If this is the case, I blame Vrabel, McDaniels, and Maronne for the o-line disaster.

Campbell's a better run blocker, which I'm sure played a bigger role. But obviously, on Sunday, they couldn't get anything going there, and that definitely didn't help.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Horrible decision to not shut him down for the year if thats true. Or at least make the switch after multiple bad outings

 

[Kargetina]

I get you don’t want to shoot the kids confidence long term.. but this is still the Super Bowl

I would have agreed if we're talking about a healthy player that just plays bad, but if a player is so injured that he's a huge liability, the coaches have a duty to bench him both for his health, his deteriorating confidence due to his play which he can do nothing about, and the give the team the best chance to win.

If Campbell is a team player, and benching him would have improved the offense, he would have taken one for the team. If you bench him, the team is better and he's sour, you know you have me-first player, and deal with it accordingly but i really doubt that would have been the case. I doubt he played on a torn ligament for his own sake, and he'll never bench himself.

 

[Rob0729]

Campbell's a better run blocker, which I'm sure played a bigger role. But obviously, on Sunday, they couldn't get anything going there, and that definitely didn't help.

The Pats rushed for 246 yards against Buffalo and 155 yards against the Jets , and 119 yards against the Giants with Lowe at LT. It wasn't like they were awful running the ball with Lowe.

 

[reflexblue]

Then why didn't they at least try to see if Vederian Lowe could have done better? Lowe did a more than adequate job filling in for Campbell. Why put a less than 100% Campbell out there when they might have gotten more production from Lowe.

If this is the case, I blame Vrabel, McDaniels, and Maronne for the o-line disaster.

There are some decisions that vrable and jm have made that i don't think BB in his prime dynasty days would have made. Such as not yanking wc, or jm not making adjustments to what sattle was doing defensively

 

[Betterthanmost]

Hmmm, not sure how to take this, I have several thoughts running:
Who made the call to play him?
Are players running the show?
Which medical professionals signed off on this?
Is Lowe that bad that a one leg Campbell will be preferred?
Why did we have backup LTs ?
They saw that the left side was struggling, Maye did not trust the left side and they kept at this?
Why? Or the answer is just because of why?

 

[TheRainMaker]

Horrible decision to not shut him down for the year if thats true. Or at least make the switch after multiple bad outings

I would've benched him after the first pass blocking attempt of the Super Bowl. Nwosu is not a power rusher and he put Campbell on a sled drill.

 

[DarrylS]

Im now waiting for Maye to come out and say that his shoulder was much worse than what was portraid

I agree many of the passes we were used to seeing this season were way off...
Read something somewhere about how Maye commented after the game that he could not feel his shoulder as he was given a shot...
I suspect we will hear something about a procedure on that shoulder in the near future...

 

[VrabelJr]

Our new regime has its first Malcolm Butler benching moment.

I figured he had either a knee ligament issue or a labrum/tricep/chest issue.

 

[UrbanCowboy]

That makes sense. So, the performance was not as bad as it seemed. He was hurt. Rookie. Tough gauntlet. He'll be fine at left tackle for the next decade. I think there's some selective recall about Lowe. Glad Vrabes made a clear statement he is not moving Campbell anywhere.

 

[Huckleberry1]

It's amazing how many incredible football coaches we have in this forum. And not just coaches but NFL level coaches who all know better than Vrabel does, although that's not tough because Vrabel is such a ****ty coach. Looks like Kraft needs to change coaches again this offseason after the terrible job Vrabel did. Fortunately all Kraft needs to do is read Patsfans, he could put an entire staff together with the savant's in this forum.

 

[Hugepatsfan]

Never really like the "I played with insert injury here" coming off a bad performance in the Super Bowl.

I think you have to understand the landscape of professional sports now. The guy is a laughing stock right now. People are making memes of him left and right. I can only imagine the mean and nasty things a lot of people are writing in his social media comments and even on his girlfriend's profile. I understand that they get paid well and it comes with the territory of being an athlete to be in the public eye, but with the 24-7 scrutiny and the way fans can hide behind a screen to say such awful things to players, I can't really fault them for coming out and defending themselves. Most people if they saw him in person would stay respectful but you let them hide behind a screen and they'll say awful things about what's probably the worst day of the guy's life right now and the lowest he's ever felt.

This isn't like the "old days" where if you sucked you'd get a snarky reporter writing some pointed stuff about you. There's such direct access to these athletes now that I'll never fault them for trying to stick up for themselves with something like this.

 

[Guts]

I get you don’t want to shoot the kids confidence long term.. but this is still the Super Bowl

if bro had a tear in his knee and was being overpowered constantly they should've put Lowe in he did okay when Willl was in IR

It's amazing how many incredible football coaches we have in this forum. And not just coaches but NFL level coaches who all know better than Vrabel does, although that's not tough because Vrabel is such a ****ty coach. Looks like Kraft needs to change coaches again this offseason after the terrible job Vrabel did. Fortunately all Kraft needs to do is read Patsfans, he could put an entire staff together with the savant's in this forum.

Eh that's the point of a sports messageboard lol

 

[reflexblue]

It's amazing how many incredible football coaches we have in this forum. And not just coaches but NFL level coaches who all know better than Vrabel does, although that's not tough because Vrabel is such a ****ty coach. Looks like Kraft needs to change coaches again this offseason after the terrible job Vrabel did. Fortunately all Kraft needs to do is read Patsfans, he could put an entire staff together with the savant's in this forum.

Its perfectly fine to ask questions about decisions made and decisions that weren't, or comparing what one coach did vs another, thats part of being on here. For instance vrable played the game at a high level, BB did not. Vrable knows by personal experience what its like to want to play even if injured. So did Vrable let WC play injured over lowe because he knows what its like. Where sa since BB never played its black and white to him. Your injured, so someone taking your place. Vrables a ''players coach" BB was not

 

[Ross12]

I get you don’t want to shoot the kids confidence long term.. but this is still the Super Bowl

It seems apparent to me that Vrabel treated the entire year as a rebuilding year, including the postseason. He was not going to bench his young players/core players because they had some small struggles or injuries they were working through. He wanted them to get the reps and the experience. If I were to put myself in his shoes, he probably looked at it as - "we might not win a Lombardi, but these kids will get reps that will be invaluable to help them grow over the next few years, and me keeping them in there will massively build their trust in me. If I bench them, we might have a marginally better chance at a ring (but we'll probably still lose), but the locker room won't be quite the same and the kids won't get the reps and experience."

So yes, Vrabel probably made the "wrong" decision as far as winning this game, but I don't know if that was truly the goal. He was doing what was best for the growth of his team long term. Which, I realize, is kinda crazy to be focused on in the Super Bowl... but I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. If these guys are back in the postseason playing at a high level next year or two years from now and they're saying how much it meant to them that their coach kept them in the game as rookies and had faith in them and it helped them get where they are today, we will be viewing it differently.