{"id":747909,"date":"2026-02-12T22:37:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/747909\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T22:37:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:37:41","slug":"patriots-legend-dante-scarnecchia-on-will-campbell-im-not-firing-this-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/747909\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots legend Dante Scarnecchia on Will Campbell: ‘I’m not firing this guy’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karen Guregian\u2019s football analysis is sponsored by Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers<\/a>, a Leading Boston Personal Injury Firm. <\/p>\n

Will Campbell\u2019s Super Bowl struggles<\/a> have been well-chronicled. They\u2019ve triggered discussion about whether he should remain at left tackle. <\/p>\n

The conversation has focused on sliding Drake Maye\u2019s blindside protector over to left guard, where many believe he\u2019ll excel, or staying the course, not giving up on the first round draft pick so soon. <\/p>\n

Even though Patriots coach Mike Vrabel <\/a>said Tuesday that Campbell was his left tackle and wasn\u2019t moving anywhere, that hasn\u2019t stopped the debate. It remains a hot button topic.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I reached out to Patriots legend Dante Scarnecchia, the foremost authority on offensive line play, to get his take.<\/p>\n

How did the Patriots former offensive line guru feel about Campbell <\/a>in wake of the left tackle being run over in the Super Bowl? According to Next Gen Stats, the rookie allowed 14 pressures.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you what. I\u2019m not firing this guy,\u201d Scarnecchia said, speaking with MassLive Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019m putting him right back where he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scarnecchia, who was with the Patriots organization for 34 years, didn\u2019t mince words. He would stand pat.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cknee-jerk reaction\u201d based on one bad game.<\/p>\n

In recent days, there\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Scarnecchia isn\u2019t dismissing what 124.9 million viewers watched on Sunday. He\u2019s just not willing to move Campbell without trying to fix him first.<\/p>\n

Campbell had fared reasonably well during the first dozen games he played before getting hurt, suffering an MCL injury <\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would submit, in the first 12 games, there wasn\u2019t really a whole lot of bad things there relative to Will Campbell,\u201d Scarnecchia said of the LSU rookie, who had shored up the position the first dozen games. \u201cSo what\u2019s the difference here? Did he suddenly get bad? I don\u2019t know. But I know that the quality of players he was going against was really good. You can\u2019t 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?\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been plenty of former offensive tackles – Terron Armstead, Willie Anderson, Richie Incognito – who have suggested Campbell\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s an ongoing process with everyone. The one thing (the Patriots) are going to do, if they haven\u2019t already done it, is go back and look at everything and say, \u2018Why did we struggle so much here, when it wasn\u2019t apparent earlier?\u2019’\u2019 Scarnecchia said with respect to Campbell\u2019s issues. \u201dIs 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.\u201c <\/p>\n

Scarnecchia backed Vrabel\u2019s approach. As stated above, the well-respected line coach wouldn\u2019t give up on developing Campbell, and trying to make him the tackle that was envisioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I like that\u2019s come out so far is that Mike is of the mentality we\u2019re not moving him. We\u2019re keeping him (at left tackle). We liked him coming out. And we\u2019re going to do everything we can to see why this guy\u2019s production and ability lessoned in the last four games, as opposed to the first 12 games,\u201d Scarnecchia said. \u201cThat\u2019s 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, \u2018Here\u2019s the things that are a problematic deal with you.\u2019’\u2019<\/p>\n

Scarnecchia said he liked Campbell quite a bit coming out of college. He hasn\u2019t seen the same dynamic run blocker he saw at LSU, but again, he\u2019s been with the program just one year. Moving him only creates another problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re 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,\u201d Scarnecchia said regarding the Patriots draft position. \u201cSo good luck \u2026 they don\u2019t fall out of trees these guys.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Karen Guregian\u2019s football analysis is sponsored by Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers, a Leading Boston Personal Injury Firm. Will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7,16165],"class_list":{"0":"post-747909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-super-bowl-lx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116060061107612086","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747909","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=747909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}