Despite reaching the Super Bowl a season ago, and improving their roster, there are plenty of questions the Patriots need to answer in the coming weeks and months. With that in mind, I thought I’d pose a handful of concerns/thoughts today about the offense (handled the defense on Monday).
These aren’t the only questions I have, but the ones front of mind as we dive in headfirst this summer.
1. Can Will Campbell put the playoffs in the rearview mirror and be the left tackle of the now and of the future?
Before suffering a knee injury in Cincinnati, the rookie was, well, fine protecting Drake Maye’s blindside. Even average. Teammates and the coaching staff lauded Campbell for his play style and demeanor, and rare was the day that the rookie wasn’t soaking up wisdom from veteran Morgan Moses or guys like Harold Landry and K’Lavon Chaisson post-practice. Plus, he and Maye became Foxborough’s frick-and-frack, and who doesn’t enjoy a story like that?
You know how I feel about Pro Football Focus’ grading, but I can’t chart every tackle in football while covering this team, so take it for what it's worth. They had him graded 37th in pass pro and 40th as a run blocker through the first 12 weeks of the season.
That’s not to say it was perfect. Far from it. Pittsburgh’s Nick Herbig put Campbell in a blender during that Week 3 loss, especially in the second half. Cleveland’s Myles Garrett got him a month or so later (as he does to pretty much everyone). The better the competition, the more some of the warts in Campbell’s game revealed themselves.
Yes, the arm length was, at times, a problem (I know that bothers some of you, but we’ll get through this, together or separately). Also troublesome was Campbell’s over-reliance on thinking he could anchor late versus the caliber of rushers/athletes you see in the NFL. That worked extraordinarily well at LSU. Here? Not as much.
Post-injury Campbell was a different cat. He just didn’t have the strength necessary to hold up to the kind of power, and the results were ugly. His pass blocking ranking plummeted from the aforementioned 37th to 58th per PFF because, over that four-game playoff, Campbell was the worst-rated tackle in football. In addition, TruMedia had Campbell down for surrendering the third-most sacks of any tackle in football during the 2025-26 campaign.
Those numbers - and what my eyes told me - bring all the pre-draft questions about the player to light. If he’s healthy, Campbell can be competitive, and maybe even control league-average rushers. But the elite guys are always going to be a problem, and if he’s playing at less than 100% (and let’s face it, that number goes by the wayside quickly in an NFL season), even the Odafe Owehs of the world can make his life - and Maye’s - hell.
Meanwhile, the Pats took a career left tackle in Caleb Lomu in round one of the 2026 NFL Draft. While the publicly stated reason is a) they didn’t expect Lomu to be in range and b) good tackles are hard to come by, only a fool would write off taking a left tackle one year after drafting one as a nothing-burger. Ideally, Campbell is what they drafted him 4th overall to be - a franchise player - and Lomu makes the transition to the right side. But if that first scenario doesn’t play out, well, things just got a whole lot more interesting - and concerning - on the offensive line.
2. What is TreVeyon Henderson?
To cross sports, is Henderson the running back version of