Will Campbell injury update: Patriots rookie tackle trending in right direction play

Story by

Story by
Will Campbell injury update: Patriots rookie tackle trending in right direction play

Mark Daniels · MassLive

Fri, Jan 2, 2026 ·

3 min read

About Our Ads

FOXBOROUGH – After playing in the league, Doug Marrone has coached for over 30 years.

He more than understands what it’s like to see a player suffer an injury. After it happens, he said the biggest thing is how that player handles adversity. That’s why the Patriots ’ offensive line coach didn’t know what would happen or how Will Campbell would react after the rookie suffered a knee injury in Cincinnati .

That marked the first serious setback of Campbell’s football journey. It was the first time he’d have to miss games due to an injury.

In the end, it’s also why Marrone was so proud of his starting left tackle. Campbell worked hard to get back with his teammates, and five weeks later, the rookie not only returned to practice, but was a full participant this week.

On Friday, Mike Vrabel said things were trending in the right direction for Campbell to play in the Patriots ’ regular-season finale against the Miami Dolphins .

“Will pretty much really attacked it. I think that’s important,” Marrone said. “I’ve been fortunate to see that out of a lot of players throughout the years. It’s very unfortunate that someone gets hurt, you never want that, but then to watch them work as hard as they work to get back is something that’s a good quality to have.”

Drafted fourth overall, Campbell instantly stabilized the Patriots’ left tackle position. The rookie started all 12 games before suffering the knee injury in Cincinnati. He was placed on the injured reserve after that and rehabbed his knee over the last five weeks, missing four games.

The Patriots inserted Vederian Lowe into the starting lineup, where the backup played well.

This week, Campbell was eligible to come off the injured reserve, and on Wednesday, he practiced for the first time. On the injury report, the Patriots listed the rookie as a ‘full’ participant, which is impressive considering he hadn’t practiced in five weeks.

Marrone said Campbell received good advice from veteran tackle Morgan Moses , who dealt with an MCL injury last season. The coach noted that Moses laid out to Campbell how he should “attack” the rehab process, and the rookie followed.

“He’s worked hard to be where he is right now,” Marrone said. “In my experience, you really don’t know how people will handle it. The faster you understand what happened and the faster you can get on track to try to rehabilitate and get better and use the resources around you, is great, but having veterans who have gone through it, that helps out quite a bit.”

More Patriots Content