Pats Pulpit
Notes and thoughts on Will Campbell’s mentor, the Patriots’ summer break, a potential trade candidate, and more.
On April 7, the New England Patriots began their offseason workout program. Two months later, they held the final session — a two-hour practice inside the WIN Waste Innovations Field House — to wrap things up. Naturally, most of our focus this week was on the two practices that you can recap here (Monday) and here (Tuesday).
For everything else, let’s clean out the notebook. Welcome to the latest edition of our Sunday Patriots Notes.
One of the big reasons why the Patriots selected Will Campbell in the first round of the NFL Draft in April was his leadership ability. He was a team captain at LSU and was also awarded the prestigious No. 7 jersey, which he wore as a patch.
Now in New England, though, Campbell is still in the early stages of his pro career and has yet to find his voice in the room. As a consequence, he is looking for guidance from others.
One prominent mentor for him, alongside veterans Mike Onwenu and Garrett Bradbury, has been fellow offensive tackle Morgan Moses.
“He’s been great. Playbook, scheme things, questions about his past play, and just really getting to know him off the field, too,” Campbell said about the 34-year-old. “He’s just giving me bits and pieces in really all aspects.”
Moses joined the Patriots on a three-year free agency deal in March, and will start at right tackle this season. Besides filling that role, he also was added to help revamp the offense from a leadership perspective (just like Campbell is expected to do eventually):
At this early stage in the process, the rookie left tackle is already taking advantage of the 11-year veteran’s presence in the room.
“Whenever you’re a rookie at any position you look for a guy that you know can come in and has done it the right way since he’s been in the league, proven himself, and that is a great person that you can latch on to,” Campbell said of Moses. “He’s just been great to me — not only me, but all the guys in the room.”
Moses first entered the NFL as a second-round draft pick by the now-Washington Commanders in 2014. He later also spent time with the Baltimore Ravens and New York Jets, starting a total of 163 games along the way.
The Patriots’ players and coaches will not be back on the practice fields until the first session of training camp on July 23. However, inactivity is not an option for either group over the next five weeks — a message head coach Mike Vrabel made sure to let his team known this week.
“I don’t think it’s a downtime. It’s time away from the facility. I think it’s important,” Vrabel explained during one of his media sessions.
Players are free...
