{"id":669541,"date":"2026-01-11T19:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T19:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/669541\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T19:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T19:33:15","slug":"mike-vrabel-gave-patriots-will-campbell-special-job-during-rookie-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/669541\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Vrabel Gave Patriots&#8217; Will Campbell Special Job During Rookie Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Will Campbell did more than block for Drake Maye during his rookie season.<\/p>\n<p>Even as the No. 4 pick, Campbell wasn\u2019t immune to some playful hazing inside the New England Patriots\u2019 building. Head coach Mike Vrabel tasked the left tackle with an off-field assignment, directing Campbell to address the team with a weekly weather report during Friday meetings.<\/p>\n<p>As detailed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsportsboston.com\/nfl\/new-england-patriots\/will-campbell-friday-speeches-mike-vrabel\/759506\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NBC Sports Boston\u2019s Phil Perry<\/a>, Campbell would inform his teammates of community and player events, the lunch menu and other news along with a weather forecast. The 22-year-old eventually took a liking to Vrabel\u2019s job.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe volunteered me,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cI didn\u2019t really have a choice, but I\u2019ve enjoyed doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Campbell had fun with the role, often turning his address into a comedy routine. Vice president of football operations and strategy John \u201cStretch\u201d Streicher even wrote jokes for the rookie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, I was not looking forward to it at first,\u201d Campbell confessed. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t something that I got out of bed on Friday morning looking forward to. But now, as long as there\u2019s some good stuff to read, I don\u2019t mind it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>His teammates also enjoyed Campbell\u2019s Friday debriefing, but rookie guard Jared Wilson couldn\u2019t think of any clean material to share with Perry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know, there\u2019s not a lot that I can,\u201d Wilson said after a long pause. \u201cBeing totally honest with you. But they\u2019re good. They\u2019re good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Campbell\u2019s gig embodies a looser, jovial <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2026\/01\/patriots-fans-will-love-will-campbell-pro-mike-vrabel-message-regular-season\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">culture<\/a> under Vrabel. Tight end Austin Hooper said the coach has created a \u201cwork-hard environment\u201d while also allowing room for levity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf something funny happens, you can laugh,\u201d Hooper said. \u201cYou can smile. It\u2019s OK to have whatever your personality is as long as you\u2019re handling your business and you\u2019re on top of your details. You can be whoever you want to be as long as you\u2019re a good teammate and doing your job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will Campbell did more than block for Drake Maye during his rookie season. Even as the No. 4&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,838,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,351],"class_list":{"0":"post-669541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-mike-vrabel","10":"tag-new-england","11":"tag-new-england-patriots","12":"tag-newengland","13":"tag-newenglandpatriots","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-patriots","16":"tag-will-campbell"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115878140567369281","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}