Karen Guregian’s football analysis is sponsored by Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers, a Leading Boston Personal Injury Firm.
Will Campbell’s Super Bowl struggles have been well-chronicled. They’ve triggered discussion about whether he should remain at left tackle.
The conversation has focused on sliding Drake Maye’s blindside protector over to left guard, where many believe he’ll excel, or staying the course, not giving up on the first round draft pick so soon.
Even though Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said Tuesday that Campbell was his left tackle and wasn’t moving anywhere, that hasn’t stopped the debate. It remains a hot button topic.
That’s why I reached out to Patriots legend Dante Scarnecchia, the foremost authority on offensive line play, to get his take.
How did the Patriots former offensive line guru feel about Campbell in wake of the left tackle being run over in the Super Bowl? According to Next Gen Stats, the rookie allowed 14 pressures.
“I’ll tell you what. I’m not firing this guy,” Scarnecchia said, speaking with MassLive Wednesday. “I’m putting him right back where he was.”
Scarnecchia, who was with the Patriots organization for 34 years, didn’t mince words. He would stand pat.
He would be more inclined to get a handle on why Campbell had a tough time, and fix or correct those issues, as opposed to making a “knee-jerk reaction” based on one bad game.
In recent days, there’s been plenty of that going around. Campbell not only played poorly in the Super Bowl, but also had issues in all the playoff games allowing 29 pressures in all.
That left Maye the victim of poor blindside protection, as the Patriots quarterback was sacked 21 times in four playoff games. So the Campbell issue has snowballed into a firestorm following the Patriots 29-13 loss to the Seahawks on Sunday.
Scarnecchia isn’t dismissing what 124.9 million viewers watched on Sunday. He’s just not willing to move Campbell without trying to fix him first.
Campbell had fared reasonably well during the first dozen games he played before getting hurt, suffering an MCL injury which the lineman described Tuesday as being a tear. He went on IR, missed four games, then started in the season finale against Miami before the playoffs began.
“I would submit, in the first 12 games, there wasn’t really a whole lot of bad things there relative to Will Campbell,” Scarnecchia said of the LSU rookie, who had shored up the position the first dozen games. “So what’s the difference here? Did he suddenly get bad? I don’t know. But I know that the quality of players he was going against was really good. You can’t discount that when considering if this is something to be concerned about. Or, is this guy physically a lesser player at this point for whatever reason?”
There have been plenty of former offensive tackles – Terron Armstead, Willie Anderson, Richie Incognito – who have suggested Campbell’s issues deal more with technique, as opposed to be unsuited to play the position. The elements being discussed include Campbell not being wide enough on his sets, relying too much on a two-point stance, along with failing to anchor his frame enough and getting pushed back into the quarterback, etc.
“That’s an ongoing process with everyone. The one thing (the Patriots) are going to do, if they haven’t already done it, is go back and look at everything and say, ‘Why did we struggle so much here, when it wasn’t apparent earlier?’’’ Scarnecchia said with respect to Campbell’s issues. ”Is it the quality of the player? Is it the loss of technique? Is he injured? All of that is going to be studied ad nauseum.“
Scarnecchia backed Vrabel’s approach. As stated above, the well-respected line coach wouldn’t give up on developing Campbell, and trying to make him the tackle that was envisioned.
“What I like that’s come out so far is that Mike is of the mentality we’re not moving him. We’re keeping him (at left tackle). We liked him coming out. And we’re going to do everything we can to see why this guy’s production and ability lessoned in the last four games, as opposed to the first 12 games,” Scarnecchia said. “That’s what you do as coaches. You go back and look at it all. And in fairness to the kid, too. And then you sit him down and say, ‘Here’s the things that are a problematic deal with you.’’’
Scarnecchia said he liked Campbell quite a bit coming out of college. He hasn’t seen the same dynamic run blocker he saw at LSU, but again, he’s been with the program just one year. Moving him only creates another problem.
“You’re going to be in the same boat you were last year. We gotta go get a left tackle. And now, you got the 31st pick and not the 4th pick,” Scarnecchia said regarding the Patriots draft position. “So good luck … they don’t fall out of trees these guys.”