00:00All right, what's going on with Will Campbell?
00:04You know, Elliott Wolfe is saying that he didn't look strong.
00:08He had that injury in his knee.
00:12I'm not quite sure.
00:14There seems to be a lot of reasons why he shouldn't have played then.
00:17Am I misreading the situation?
00:19They wanted him to come back for the postseason.
00:21And if he wanted to come back for the postseason.
00:23I know he did.
00:24Yeah, and I think they looked at him as the best possible option at that point.
00:30And so, really, ultimately, I don't know.
00:32I wouldn't go so far as to say it did more harm than good.
00:35But they wanted him back.
00:37He wanted to come back.
00:38And I think, in hindsight, the timing of the injury was what really sucked for them.
00:42If he went down in October and had a little bit more of a runway before the start of the
00:47postseason,
00:48maybe things would have been easier for him and the team in general.
00:51But I think it all came down to the timing of what happened.
00:54It just sucked because he was thrown right back into the fire.
00:58And he went up against some great pass rushers.
01:01And we all saw the result.
01:02Are you concerned at all about him next season?
01:05No, no.
01:06I'll say this, though, Fred.
01:08The group of offensive linemen that could be there at the end of the first round and in the second
01:14round,
01:15there are some versatile guys out there, including Freeling from Georgia.
01:18There's a kid from Texas A&M who's played both guard and tackle over the course of his career.
01:24And if they get one of those guys, that gives them some sort of plausible deniability when it comes to
01:31maybe looking at this as a referendum on Will Campbell
01:34and what they want to do with him moving forward.
01:36Because if they get one of these guys in the first 60 picks, 70 picks, and he comes in and
01:42plays really well as a tackle,
01:43well, they can say, well, look, we love this kid.
01:45We love this kid so much.
01:47We're going to put him at a tackle spot, and then we'll move Will into guard.
01:49The other thing to remember here also is Elliot yesterday kind of unprovoked said, well, you know,
01:55we love Morgan Moses, but Morgan Moses is going to be 35 next year, basically saying, look,
02:00we don't know how much longer we can count on him as a right tackle while praising what he did
02:05over the 2025 season.
02:07And Elliot said, look, you know, offensive tackle was a need for us going into the season.
02:11So there's a lot of different things at play when you talk about the Patriots, offensive tackle, free agency in
02:17the draft.
02:18So I would expect some moving parts going into next season.
02:20That's always what I thought they would do.
02:22If I was the GM, I'd bring in a tackle under the guise of like, or under the assumption that
02:27he'd play right tackle.
02:29And then if he shows in camp and you can make that decision, and I agree with you, if just
02:33by taking a tackle,
02:35it's not a referendum on Will Campbell, but hey, can never have too many good offensive linemen.
02:39Yeah.
02:40You've got a 35 year old, you know, guy who's, you know, you're very fortunate, played every game last year.
02:45You know, go ahead.
02:46Yeah.
02:47And it's not just an investment in the offensive line.
02:50It's an investment in your young quarterback.
02:51And I think you need to look at it that way.
02:53And I know Vrabel loves his guys and I know Vrabel loves Will Campbell, but he doesn't want to throw
02:57him under the bus.
02:58But again, this gives them, you know, I keep coming back to the phrase plausible deniability when it, you know,
03:04when, when we look at Will Campbell and, you know, I know he loves him and I know he says
03:08he's his left tackle for the future.
03:09But if you bring in another guy in the draft, then, you know, you're going to let the chips fall
03:13where they may.
03:13I think we may have even talked about this last time that the great Vrabel quote is that, you know,
03:18when he was a player, he used to watch the draft every year.
03:20He said, because, you know, I want to know who they're trying to replace me with.
03:23So he understands the level of competition.
03:25He understands that the roster needs to get better if they want to get to where they want to be.
03:29All right.
03:30And finally, are you getting a vibe like kind of, are they going all in?
03:34Would they, you know, trade that first pick for, you know, I mean, Max Crosby is the big name that
03:39everyone's talking about.
03:40It doesn't need to be specifically him or do you think they're looking to keep the picks and kind of
03:46build up?
03:47I know Elliot Wolf touched on this, but just are you getting an overall vibe of what the offseason strategy
03:52is going to be?
03:53I think they're keeping the picks.
03:54I think they recognize the fact that they're not a consistent Super Bowl contender as this roster exists right now.
04:00And they need to continue to build it piece by piece, brick by brick.
04:04They know they're not one or two players away from winning the Super Bowl.
04:08And I think they're proceeding accordingly.
04:10And I think that means them holding on to as many picks as possible, getting as many bites at the
04:14apple as possible with the idea of getting another two, three, four guys in this draft class that are going
04:20to be impact players down the road.
04:22Yeah, I don't know if that's not the, that seems like maybe that's the best decision to be making.
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