Under the cloak of secrecy, the New England Patriots’ top decision-makers flew to Louisiana last week for one final look at the prospect at the top of their boards.
By this point, they had a pretty good sense of who would be the first three players picked in the 2025 NFL Draft. And they felt good about the guy who kept climbing to the top of their board: an offensive lineman named Will Campbell.
But they wanted to be sure.
So Mike Vrabel led a contingent of Patriots personnel on a covert trip to the bayou for a chat with the football-loving lineman with a thick drawl. They needed one last up-close look to make sure they were about to make the right decision.
When they got to the field that day, Vrabel did something few NFL coaches do. He told Campbell that he was going to line up opposite Campbell. If Vrabel was there to see how Campbell could block, what better way than to be the guy getting blocked? So the new Patriots coach grabbed a blocking pad and held it tight to his chest. He told Campbell to block as if Vrabel was coming down the line to stop the run.
So Campbell took a charging first step, dropped the weight on his 6-foot-6, 319-pound frame and fired his arms into Vrabel’s blocking pad. He did it with such force that Vrabel — 49 years old but a 14-year NFL vet — fell onto his rear end. He laughed, part humbled and part impressed by the man he’d one week later make the No. 4 pick in the NFL Draft.
“I realize I’m pretty close to 50,” Vrabel said of the moment. “If that tape ever gets out, people are going to have some problems. I hope that tape never sees the light of day. But I think it was important for me to get out there and feel them, feel every player that we evaluated at the line of scrimmage.”
There were so many directions the Patriots could have gone with the fourth pick. Such is life with a roster coming off back-to-back 4-13 seasons. And there are certainly legitimate reasons to wonder if Campbell will be a left tackle throughout his NFL career.
But moments like last week encapsulate why the 21-year-old from Monroe, La., is a perfect fit as the first pick of the Vrabel era. It also explains why the Pats were confident in choosing Campbell, even if he’ll be an outlier if he becomes a productive left tackle.
To jump-start this rebuild, Vrabel wants guys who play and act a certain way. He wants guys with a high floor who are dependable. He wants accountability. He wants players who want to be coached and aren’t afraid to knock around their future coach in an on-field drill.
Campbell gives them all of that. And he gives them a left tackle after a year in which no NFL team got worse play from that position.
“He’s a leader,” Vrabel said. “He’s durable. He’s physical. Dependable. Accountable. A quick study. We spent a lot of time with him. Whatever mistakes that showed up — which they all do — he recovers quickly and can fix those mistakes.”
Their path to Campbell has been a long one. As part of yearly scouting trips, executive VP of player personnel Eliot Wolf was in Baton Rouge to visit LSU at the end of September. He knew the Pats would probably be looking for an offensive tackle in the draft. He was invited to watch practice and chat with some draft-eligible players.
When he spoke with Campbell, the left tackle didn’t hide his feelings. He told Wolf that he wanted the Patriots to draft him.
“I just think that the culture and the New England Patriot logo speaks for itself,” Campbell said Thursday night. “I believe in the guys in that locker room. I believe in the quarterback. Coach Vrabel is my kind of guy. He’s all ball and no BS, and that’s what I want to play for. He’s very hands-on. He loves the players that he coaches, and I just want to be a part of that.”
Here’s where we should probably address the elephant in the room. Campbell will be unique if he succeeds as a starting left tackle in the NFL. His arms measure 33 inches, and he has a wingspan of 77 3/8 inches. No one in the last 25 years had those measurements or shorter and succeeded long term at left tackle.
But this pick was about more than who is going to play left tackle for the Patriots in 2030. This rebuild isn’t going to happen overnight. In the meantime, Vrabel wants a roster of players he feels will do things the right way. That’s Campbell, even if he one day might have to move to guard.
“He hasn’t even shown up here in Foxboro, and we’re not going to talk about where he’s going to play or what he’s going to do,” Vrabel said when asked if it was a misevaluation if Campbell becomes a guard. “I’m going to let everything really speak for itself and let his play (talk) … before we start talking about that.”
Plus, it’s not like the Patriots had tons of obvious alternatives. Every player after Travis Hunter and Abdul Carter came with questions or concerns. Frankly, it was just a bad draft to have the fourth pick — perhaps a penance for their good fortune in picking No. 3 last year when a quarterback they wanted fell into their laps.
When the Pats were on the clock Thursday night, their phones were quiet. The Pats were interested in moving back, but no one wanted to trade up for the fourth pick, another sign that the league graded the prospects from about four to 14 pretty closely.
So the Patriots stuck and took an offensive lineman they hope will set an example in a new era.
Vrabel wants to build the Patriots starting with the trenches, then moving outside. He wants to build the team with guys like Campbell. That feeling was reaffirmed during a trip to Louisiana last week when Campbell pancaked his future coach.
“I’m not going to lie,” Campbell said, “I got him on the ground.”
