A Patriots Fan's Draft Wish List for Day 1: Will Campbell

Current offensive tackle roster: Demontrey Jacobs, Morgan Moses, Vederian Lowe, Caeden Wallace

Positional overview: Not to belabor the point any further, but without a doubt the single biggest area of neglect on the Patriots has been offensive line in general, and left tackle in particular. Since letting Nate Solder leave after the 2017 season and trying to replace him with Isaiah Wynn (unsuccessfully), they've drafted a total of three true offensive tackles, the highest being Wallace 68th overall last year. Wallace may or may not have been a nice try, but the jury is still deliberating on that one since he battled injuries and only took a total of 129 snaps. Moses is the unquestioned right tackle and presumptive veteran leader of this unit to replace David Andrews. But the task of finding someone to protect Drake Maye's precious backside for 700 or so pass attempts is no less a priority than it was last offseason. It's still the Prime Directive. Everything else is secondary.

Will Campbell, LSU, OT. 6-foot-6, 319 pounds, 4.98 40-time

In case this needs to be said, my interest in the Patriots landing Will Campbell with the No. 4 pick is predicated on two things:

1) My first choice, Travis Hunter is already off the board.

II. Campbell's arms aren't 32 5/8 inches long like the NFL measured at the Combine. But are, in fact, 33 inches exactly, like the NFL measured at LSU's Pro Day. Which is likely the case since there's a pattern here suggesting the tape measure used at the Lucas Oil Olympics was as accurate as the pressure gauges the league used to measure Tom Brady's footballs:

Chart via @RealAlexBarth:

You might not agree. Or think that the preferred 33 inch cutoff which is the accepted league-wide standard, is ridiculous and arbitrary. But while it might not be everything, it certainly isn't nothing:

Source - The last time an NFL offensive tackle with arms shorter than 33 inches made the Pro Bowl was in 2008, when Michael Roos of the Tennessee Titans earned the honor. Roos, who had an arm length of 32 inches, was named to the Pro Bowl and also received First-Team All-Pro recognition that year. Since then, no offensive tackle with arms shorter than 33 inches has been selected to the Pro Bowl, based on available data from the past 30+ years.

You have to have some bare minimum passing grade on arm length. The magic number is 33. I don't make the rules. And when you're drafting fourth overall at THE area of need on your roster, you can't afford to take chances on a guy with Patrick Star arms. It's a Pass/Fail test, and I do believe Campbell wings check that box, however barely.

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With all that business out of the way, he positively passes every other metric. At the Indianapolis Kennel Club, he was graded with the third best Production Score, the third best Athleticism Score, and the second highest Overall grade. More to the point is his production at LSU. Despite being just 21 years old, he's already played 38 games. In just shy of 1,600 snaps, he gave up a career total of 32 pressures and only four sacks. None them in 2023 when he was blocking for Jayden Daniels. All while facing the best competition in the country in the SEC.

He does it with a combination of speed, agility, and a powerful punch that knocks edge rushers off balance so he can reset and stay in front of them. He's got the lateral quickness to slide outside and push rushers deep beyond the pocket, and the straight ahead speed to bounce outside on run plays and screens, which is a requirement in Josh McDaniels' system. But despite being light on his cleats, Campbell has the density to anchor in place and hold up against bigger D-linemen, like stunting DTs. If there's an area he needs to improve on, it's picking up rushers slanting inside off the edge. But again, he just turned 21. And one of the things you hear in every assessment of him his how high his Football IQ is. He's a huge film study guy. So with coaching and time, he'll Ace that question on the SATs.

On a related note, another thing that makes Campbell a perfect fit in New England is he plays with a Logan Mankins-level mean streak. Perpetually surly and ready to take it out on anyone who lines up across from him or ends up in his field of vision. And by everything we've seen of him since this process began, this whole Arm controversy has put a giant hair across his ass. 

I for one would love to see him in a Pats uniform for the next 10 years, making every Front-7 guy in the league pluck it for him.