Will Campbell has had his fair share of issues in the NFL playoffs so far. Protecting Drake Maye’s blindside as the New England Patriots’ starting left tackle, the rookie struggled in the first two games of the tournament.
The AFC Championship Game against the Denver Broncos, however, was a different story.
Playing all 64 of the Patriots’ offensive snaps against the most productive pass-rushing team in the league, Campbell did not give up a single sack for the first time this postseason. Against the Chargers
and Texans, for comparison, NFL Next Gen Stats credited him with a combined four of them, the worst mark in the playoffs.
Versus Denver, however, one hit and one hurry was all he surrendered. And while there were still some issues to iron out before Super Bowl LX against another high-level defense, his head coach sees a player trending up.
“I thought he played better against a really good rusher,” said Mike Vrabel of Campbell’s matchup with Denver Pro Bowler Nik Bonitto.
Campbell joined the Patriots as the fourth overall selection in this year’s draft, and immediately was inserted into the starting lineup. He has not looked back since, despite going through the usual highs and lows of being a rookie tasked with facing up against top-level competition on a weekly basis.
However, his trajectory was disrupted in late November when he suffered a knee sprain in the third quarter against Cincinnati. The injury forced the Patriots to place him on injured reserve for the next four games, and allowed them to only activate him before the regular season finale. Campbell looked solid in that game, but with the uptick in competition once the playoffs started, he ran into trouble particularly as a pass rusher.
Los Angeles’ Odafe Oweh gave him all he could handle, while Houston’s Will Anderson Jr. clearly got the better of the youngster in their matchup a week later. Pro Bowler Bonitto, meanwhile, was relatively quiet and held without a sack for the first time in a month.
Campbell still was not perfect — he badly whiffed on a cut block in the first quarter, was flagged for a false start in the second, and was not on the same page with Jared Wilson on an incompletion in the third — but he did show some general improvement after a rough couple of weeks. For Mike Vrabel, that is a starting point to build from heading toward the Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks.
“We’ll need to keep improving,” Vrabel said, “and I’m excited that he has another week to do.”
