Two things happened on Sunday that led to Super Bowl 60 being the Patriots’ worst performance of the season:
1. Drake Maye was clearly not operating at 100% as a passer
2. Will Campbell played the worst game of his young professional career
The confluence of those two events led to a crushing 29-13 loss to the Seahawks on football’s biggest stage, handing New England a record-breaking sixth Super Bowl loss in franchise history, which broke a tie with the Broncos heading into Sunday.
And while Maye’s lingering shoulder injury can explain away his failings against an elite Seattle defense, Campbell’s performance felt more like the culmination of a disappointing trend rather than a one-off bad night at the office.
Per Next Gen Stats, Campbell allowed a game-high 14 pressures on 53 dropbacks, leading to Maye being hurried on more than 26% of the Patriots’ pass attempts. He only individually accounted for one of the O-line’s six sacks, but it was pressure off the left side that inevitably led to Maye being taken down multiple times, in addition to making all sorts of bad decisions with the football.
This performance from Campbell is the capper on a postseason that saw him struggle mightily across the board, particularly against the Chargers, Texans in the lead up to the Super Bowl. Pass blocking was basically a non-factor against the Broncos, so you can toss that one to the side. But when last spring’s fourth overall pick was asked to protect Maye’s blindside against some of the best fronts in all of football, he time and time again proved ineffective.
Put plainly - Maye was sacked a record 21 times this postseason, shattering the previous record holder (Joe Burrow in 2021) by two full sacks.
Understandably, fans are upset.
For a player who is supposed to be New England’s franchise left tackle, he didn’t do much in the way of tamping down his pre-draft doubters, who for months were concerned by his historically short wingspan.
What does Campbell’s all-time bad postseason mean for his career moving forward? Is it already time to bump the 6-foot-6, 323-pound 22-year-old inside and make him the Patriots’ long term answer at left guard? Does it make sense to pull the plug on Campbell’s dream of being a left tackle after just one season to have him learn a position he’s never played at any level of football?
You know these questions are being asked in your group chats.
WEEI’s Adam Jones had a definitive answer to those questions on Monday’s Jones and Keefe.
“14 pressures Will Campbell allowed - he's no longer a left tackle,” said Jones. “He is out as a left tackle, that game was so bad. He's now a guard.”
“Yeah, you just drafted a guard fourth overall,” said WEEI’s Rich Keefe. “So on the one hand, you could say, ‘Well, he played left tackle for a season and he made the Super Bowl.’ But you're like, ‘Yeah, but when you're going up against the best of the best, the guy doesn't have it.’ So like, can you play left tackle against some teams? I guess, probably. But if you don't want Drake Maye to get killed, you're gonna have to move him into guard.”
“100% - that's the right way to say it,” said Jones. “Like, do you want to protect your franchise quarterback, or not? If you do, he can't do it. Because, guess what? His arms are too short, and he can't handle it.
“Couldn't handle it against the Chargers, couldn't handle it against the Texans, couldn't handle it against the Seahawks. He played well against the Broncos in the playoffs. But Nick [LaPan] said this - what was your point about him?”
“They threw three times in the second half, and only ran to the right side,” said LaPan, Jones and Keefe’s producer. “You can have a good game if you don't have to pass block. How could you possibly have any pressures? He didn’t touch [Nik] Bonitto on Bonitto’s only pressure of the game.”
After Sunday’s loss, Campbell declined to answer questions from reporters in the locker room.
The Patriots announced that Tuesday will be their last day in the office for the 2025 season, with an open locker room session starting at 9:15 a.m. ET for the media to ask players questions, along with head coach MIke Vrabel going to the podium at noon.
Campbell’s performance on Sunday along with what his future holds at left tackle are both surely going to be topics of conversation.