Patriots Betting Against History With Will Campbell Selection

The Patriots put all the rumors to bed on Thursday.

New England officially selected LSU offensive lineman Will Campbell with the No. 4 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, putting months of talk behind them by taking what they believed to be the best player at a position of need.

It’s exactly what we all expected, but there are still questions left to be answered: How should we feel about this pick? Was it a bad move? Was it a good move?

I don’t think it’s that easy, to be honest.

You can’t properly evaluate this prospect without nuance, because immediately labeling him moments after he was drafted (whether it’s positive or negative) can be combated so easily. Campbell is a really good offensive line prospect, and many people believe the tape shows that he could stick on the outside, me included, but it isn’t that simple. The NFL has very few examples of short-armed tackles ever finding the field, let alone success, so the fact of the matter is that he’ll need to be a major outlier if he’s going to be worthy of being selected that high.

The Boston Globe’s Nicole Yang did the work to find every starting tackle with arms shorter than 33 inches in the NFL — Atlanta Falcons starting right tackle Kaleb McGary (32⅞ inches), Colts starting left tackle Bernhard Raimann (32⅞), Dolphins swing tackle Kendall Lamm (32⅝), Rams starting left tackle Alaric Jackson (32½), Buccaneers starting right tackle Luke Goedeke (32¼) and Colts starting right tackle Braden Smith (32¼).

Campbell’s arms measured at 32⅝ inches at the scouting combine and 33 inches at his pro day, but that isn’t even his biggest issue. Campbell’s wingspan measured in at 77 ⅜, shorter than any other offensive line prospect in this class — including North Carolina offensive lineman Willie Lampkin, who is 5-foot-10.

Yikes!

It’s not that they’re taking a short offensive tackle; they’re taking a narrow offensive tackle after potentially passing over opportunities to trade back and recoup value before eventually settling on a different, less-than-ideal option.

The Chicago Bears reportedly were looking to leap in front of the Las Vegas Raiders in order to secure Ashton Jeanty. The Jacksonville Jaguars threw caution to the wind and jumped all the way to No. 2 in order to select Travis Hunter.

Do we really believe no one was willing to make an offer to New England for No. 4?

The Patriots obviously couldn’t force anyone to make a trade, but by not being the aggressor, they ended up taking a player with a myriad of concerns and are entrusting him to be one of the biggest historical outliers in the history of professional football. I wouldn’t bet on this guy being a one-of-one, and though he could potentially be an all-world interior offensive lineman, the value just wasn’t there.

You don’t scout value, though. You scout the player. New England clearly believes that and will put history to the test when letting Campbell take a run at being the next blindside protector for Drake Maye.

Good luck with that.