Pats Pulpit
The New England Patriots are hoping that they will get injured left tackle Will Campbell back in time for the NFL playoffs. Until his return, however, they are making sure to keep him busy.
As head coach Mike Vrabel explained earlier this week, he has a clear vision for the rookie while on injured reserve. First and foremost, it’s all about staying engaged.
“He comes into the meetings, stays engaged, works hard to get back and to recover quickly,” Vrabel said during a press conference on Wednesday.
“That’s all it can be. If you want to have a good, long NFL career, you’re going to have to battle through some of these things, and these things are going to come up. I would say that he’s already working hard — extremely hard — to get back and being engaged in the meetings. That’s kind of what it will be for four weeks.”
The fourth overall selection in this year’s draft, Campbell started all 12 of the Patriots’ games so far this season at the left tackle position and rarely left the field. However, in the third quarter of last week’s 26-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, he remained on the ground with what was later diagnosed as a sprained MCL.
The injury prompted the team to send the 21-year-old to injured reserve, keeping him out for at least four games. It is the first time in his career going back to high school that he is forced to miss significant time. In his three seasons at LSU, he was unavailable only twice: he sat out one game during his 2022 freshman campaign because of an illness and later opted out of the bowl game to end his final season in Baton Rouge early.
Now, he will have to spend the foreseeable future focused on rehabilitation.
“Will’s a young player who hasn’t probably had a lot of injuries or things that have effected him,” Vrabel said earlier this week. “And so, there are a lot of things we have to manage through that will help these guys get over what they haven’t experienced.”
