Patriots rookie Will Campbell had a rough outing on Sunday against the Texans, with the rookie left tackle having to face off against Houston’s Will Anderson for the majority of the contest.
Campbell himself on the losing end of a few of those battles, with Anderson getting to Drake Maye on multiple occasions, where the defensive end dropped him three times and knocked the ball out of his hands.
That is exactly what the New England Patriots were hoping to avoid when Campbell was drafted, with the hope that he’d become the key building block on their offensive line to protect their franchise QB.
Prior to his injury this season, Campbell had essentially done a good job of doing that. He had been mostly flawless during his rookie campaign prior to the knee injury he suffered against the Bengals in Week 12.
That injury sidelined him until the final game against Miami, where Campbell returned and played every offensive snap. Against the Chargers, he was also in on every play and appeared to be back to himself. But in that game, there were moments where the protection faltered as New England’s offensive line went up against an aggressive Los Angeles defense, although they did enough to allow the Patriots to ultimately pull away in that game.
Still, it was a rough showing for the player in charge of protecting Maye’s blindside. Campbell had his hands full, and against Houston, his struggles ultimately spilled over for Maye and the rest of the offense.
That led to a fair amount of discussion about Campbell after the game, with his critics again questioning his ability to handle that role.
Obviously, a lot was made of Campbell’s arm-length coming out of the draft, with many wondering whether or not he was truly suited to play tackle in the NFL.
Through the majority of this season, the former LSU standout had proven the doubters wrong, but there’s somewhat of a caveat to that. One thing that seemed to allow Campbell the ability to overcome any physical limitation was the fact that he has such terrific footwork, allowing himself to get to where he needs to be in order to stop a rusher. All season, his name never came up, and he was definitely solid during New England’s winning streak.
Following the knee injury, whether or not he’d still have the same ability to move was definitely a concern as he made his way back.
That was something former Patriots center David Andrews talked about this week during an appearance on Zolak & Bertrand on 98.5 The Sports Hub. Andrews watched the tape on Campbell, and after a closer look, he felt like something wasn’t quite right based on how Campbell looked at various points on Sunday.
“I wonder if he is hurt. Because when you’re playing left tackle, as an offensive lineman, when you’re kick sliding on pass pro, your inside leg is your power leg,” explained Andrews. “That’s where you want your weight. That’s what’s giving you your force to go back and out. So if that is – it was his right knee that he hurt – so if it is still bothering [him], because I watched some of him, and I’m like, there was one, he got beat on speed, and you never really got out there. And I’m like, ‘Did he just not think it was speed coming or what?’ He just never got to his spot.”
“But some of it, to me, is I wonder if he’s in his head a little bit, too. You get going against these guys, and you struggle, you start reeling, and you start going away from your technique because you’re just trying to stop the bleeding. And that, unfortunately, a lot of times creates more problems.”
Andrews believes that Campbell can work through his issues and come out the other side, with his health being the first question. But regardless, he also feels that the rookie will need to dig deep when they head to Denver. Andrews added that while the Patriots can scheme up ways to help him, Campbell still needs to find a way to get the job done.
“Look, I think you can fix this, and you can make it right, and we’ll see,” said Andrews. “Who knows? If it comes out whenever the season ends, it’s like, ‘Hey, Will Campbell is getting a knee scope,’ and you’re like, ‘All right, well, that makes sense. Hopefully, he is better and healthy next year.’ But he’s got to do a better job.”
“And look, there’s only so much Josh [McDaniels] can do. You can’t call quick game 40 times a game. You can’t chip and slam 40 times a game. He always used to tell us that, ‘Guys, I’m going to take care of you. We’re going to run the screens. We’re going to run draws. We’re going to run quick game. We’re going to chip and slam when we can. But there’s going to be places where you have to come up. You got to do your job.’ And they haven’t done a good enough job of that these last two weeks, in my mind.'”
Meanwhile, Vrabel talked about his young tackle on Monday during his weekly appearance on WEEI’s The Greg Hill show. When directly questioned about Campbell’s health, Vrabel initially pushed back, asking, “100%, how do you mean 100%?” He then clarified, stating, “Yeah, I don’t think there’s anything that’s limiting him. He has to just… Will has high expectations for himself, and we have high expectations for him, too.”
For Campbell, Vrabel explained that playing his position is essentially just like playing cornerback. In the event he gives up a big play, which in his case would be a sack or being beaten on a rush, the more important thing is to simply bounce back and put it behind him.
“Each opportunity out there is a learning experience,” explained Vrabel. “He signed up to play a tough position. Just like Gonzo [Christian Gonzalez] and CD [Carlton Davis]. There’s just places where you have to be great. That’s the investment that we make in those players. Those are the guys that we want out there. You just have to come back, bounce back. It’s like giving up a pass or a touchdown for a corner. You got to line back up and you got to keep playing.”
Campbell will definitely need to have a short memory this week. He’s got another big test in front of him, with the rookie now set to potentially have to deal with two formidable pass rushers in Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper this week out in Denver.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
