FOXBORO — Sunday’s season opener showed that Mike Vrabel’s Patriots still are very much a work in progress.
That includes their rookie left tackle, Will Campbell.
The No. 4 overall draft pick held his own in his official NFL debut, but he committed several costly errors in New England’s 20-13 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders at Gillette Stadium.
Campbell was flagged for two false starts in the game — one on the opening play of a third-quarter drive and another that turned a fourth-and-5 into a fourth-and-10 with five minutes remaining — and was beaten around the edge by Malcolm Koonce on a Drake Maye fumble.
Running back Rhamondre Stevenson delivered a lackluster chip block on the strip-sack, but Campbell shouldered the blame when speaking with reporters postgame.
“I’ve just got to block him,” said Campbell, who recovered the fumble. “It’s nobody else other than me. I’ve got to get better. We’ll watch the tape, learn from it and fix it.”
Campbell, who’s been locked in as Maye’s primary blindside protector since the day he arrived in Foxboro this spring, was one of two rookies to start up front against Las Vegas. To his right was third-round draft pick Jared Wilson, who was flagged once for holding in the loss.
Veteran center Garrett Bradbury said Campbell admitted before kickoff that he was experiencing pregame jitters.
“I can’t speak exactly on how (Campbell and Wilson) played, but just from their demeanor, I was impressed with how they handled themselves,” Bradbury said. “Will said pregame, like, ‘I’m nervous as hell.’ I’m like, ‘Dude, I am too.’ Like, it doesn’t matter. I told him once you get that first snap, it’s just football, guys. The two false starts, obviously we can’t have that, but there’s also some things that we can help cadence-wise, and you never want to point the finger at one guy. …
“When someone has a mistake like that, everyone’s on them, so you don’t want to be the seventh guy to come on and be like, ‘Don’t fall start.’ Like, he wasn’t (expletive) trying to false start, right? We obviously just can’t hurt ourselves. We need positive, positive, positive plays. You go backwards, the percentage of scoring on that drive goes down a lot.”
Vrabel declined to share his take on Campbell’s debut, saying he needed to review the film before giving his evaluation.
“I’m sure there’s going to be some good plays, some plays we’d like to have back, that he would like to have back,” the head coach said. “I think that would go for pretty much everybody. I think there was some good football, just certainly not consistent enough in all three phases. That’s kind of what it looked like for me, and I’ll try to give you a little better answer after looking at the tape.”
The Patriots overhauled their offensive line this offseason, installing four new starters (Campbell, Wilson, Bradbury and right tackle Morgan Moses) ahead of Maye’s second pro campaign. That unit scuffled on Sunday, surrendering four sacks and nine quarterback hits while struggling to clear rushing lanes. The Patriots averaged 3.3 yards per carry in the loss and scored just three points after halftime.
“It’s the NFL,” Campbell said. “You expect a good team. We played a good team. Whenever we don’t play up to our standard, it doesn’t go our way, and that’s exactly what happened. We’ve just got to play better on offense and up front.”
Though Campbell was critical of his own performance, the most decorated member of the Raiders’ defense praised him postgame. All-Pro edge rusher Maxx Crosby, who sacked Maye once and hit him twice, said Campbell has “a bright future” in the NFL and will benefit from the guidance of offensive coordinator (and former Las Vegas head coach) Josh McDaniels.
“He’s a top pick,” Crosby told the Herald. “He’s a young, talented dude. He’s got a bright future, man, and he’s great hands with Coach McDaniels. Coach McDaniels knows what he’s doing. He’s been running great offenses for a long time. He’s all about building guys up and running the football and playing physical football, and I think there’s a reason why they drafted him there. He’s got a bright future, for sure.”