FOXBOROUGH - A wry smile crept across Will Campbell's face, and his eyes grew wider as a large media contingent swarmed his locker on Wednesday. This experience was the rookie first-rounder's first true dose of how chaotic it can get on a game week, especially for someone entrusted with protecting the franchise quarterback's blindside. All the while, 34-year-old veteran Morgan Moses had a bemused look and smiled at his bookend tackle as if to say, 'This is what you wanted, kid. Well, now, you've got.'
Campbell handled the Q&A calmly, which should come as no surprise, given that's how he has dealt with the ups and downs as training camp wore on. In fact, the former LSU star has demonstrated an impressive ability to recover from a bad rep, or a bad period, or even a bad day with a better performance during whatever came next. After the scrum cleared out, I asked him directly about that, wondering if that's who he's always been.
"I think you have to at the pro level," Campbell said. "It's something that I've had to work on. You're playing against the best players in the world, so everything's not going to go your way, but you can't let one bad play turn into more."
His teammates have noticed that, especially as the summer advanced. You had Moses telling us that Campbell needed to "give himself some grace" to now being encouraged by his ability to move on to the next play. "He has 'it','" admired Moses.
Mike Onwenu says he generally leaves Campbell alone to prepare - "He's done this for a while now" - but he also admitted to liking the rookie's short-term memory.
"Every play isn't going to be a good play," Onwenu told me. "So being able to move on when you don't have a good play and make the next play a good play is an important trait to have."
The entire offensive line has periodically gathered for early morning meetings to discuss practice and the various looks and techniques they are seeing. The idea was to raise the collective football IQ, although Campbell's intelligence jumps to the forefront when you talk to anyone within the organization about their top choice.
“Will is a young player who has a ton of respect for what is expected of him. I think he does a good job of gaining information from veteran players,” offensive line coach Doug Marrone said a couple of weeks ago. “I think he’s said this before: There are some things he’ll go out and win on, and if he’s not winning, he’s learning. I think that’s the big thing I see; I see a player who is continuously trying to learn.”
Campbell has been helped in that regard because this is now his full-time job. Oh sure, he got paid at LSU, but he also had classes to attend and homework on his plate. That is now a thing of the past, giving him increased time to prepare.
"When you don't have to worry about school, you know, you get a little more time to focus in and key in on stuff,' he said.
Campbell's training camp was a bit of a rollercoaster from a pass protection standpoint. Still, as someone who has wondered about his long-term future at left tackle, the kid impressed me with his athleticism and, as Mike Vrabel has noted, his play strength and play demeanor. You want your biggest guys to have some nastiness in them, and Campbell has that. Just talk to the three defenders he planted on their behinds in the first preseason game, or even some of his teammates who have found themselves on the wrong end of a finishing block by Campbell in the run game. The man has a goal on that football field.
"I think anytime you go out there that's kind of anybody's mindset: you want to dominate," he said. "That's kind of what we preach around here, just playing hard ... and, you know, leave everything on the field."
The matchup with the Raiders on Sunday had reporters asking Campbell about Maxx Crosby, but generally, he lines up opposite the right tackle. It being the first game, there's always a chance that Pete Carroll and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham move their best player across from a 21-year-old making his first NFL start, but it's more likely that Malcolm Koonce and Charles Snowden will see the lion's share of reps versus Campbell. Koonce was an ascending player before missing last season due to an ACL injury.
"There's a bunch of good players on the defense," said Campbell. "We just have to go out there and handle our business."
That's been an unstated but obvious mission for Campbell since he arrived in Foxborough. No reason to change it now.
