Will Campbell Answers Super Bowl Doubters With Strong Showing at Patriots-Colts Joint Practice
Will Campbell spent the offseason hearing about 14 pressures. On Tuesday, he did something about it.
The New England Patriots left tackle turned in a strong showing against the Indianapolis Colts’ pass rush during joint practice in Foxborough, according to multiple reports from the session — a clean bounce-back rep after a Super Bowl LX performance that left plenty of questions about his readiness heading into Year 2.
New England’s top offensive line unit, with Campbell anchoring the left side alongside Alijah Vera-Tucker, Jared Wilson, Mike Onwenu and Morgan Moses, kept Drake Maye upright and on platform through the entire morning against a Colts front seven that includes DeForest Buckner, Arden Key and Sauce Gardner, Yahoo Sports reported. Maye, who was sharp for most of the two-hour session outside of a late interception in two-minute drills, credited the group’s focus in seeing a new opponent for the first time in camp.
“I was proud of the guys for, first of all, the effort,” Maye said, via Yahoo Sports. “I think seeing somebody new for the first time and seeing some different things, I thought we did some good things.”
Separately, 98.5 The Sports Hub reported that Campbell has started camp with a “good bounce-back,” moving well and holding up as a blocker in both the run and pass game — even before facing a tougher test in the Colts, who brought edge rushers Laiatu Latu and Arden Key to Foxborough for the session.
A Super Bowl to Forget
The good week comes with real stakes attached. Campbell allowed one sack and a league-worst 14 total pressures on Maye in Super Bowl LX, the most pressures given up by any player in a single game all season, including the playoffs, according to Next Gen Stats. Seattle sacked Maye six times overall and forced three turnovers in a 29-13 win at Levi’s Stadium, ending New England’s season with a thud after a 14-3 regular season.
Campbell was a rookie thrown straight into the fire as the Patriots’ fourth overall pick out of LSU, and he dealt with a knee injury that complicated his first year. He suffered an MCL sprain in New England’s Week 12 win over the Cincinnati Bengals and was carted off the field, though he avoided a worst-case outcome and returned in time for the postseason. He then started every playoff game, including the Super Bowl, while still working back from the injury — a factor Maye pointed to when defending his left tackle two days after the loss.
“I think Will is a great case of somebody who experienced it all,” Maye told reporters in February, via Yahoo Sports’ report on the exchange. “Who experienced the ups and downs of the injury side of it.”
New England used part of its 2026 draft capital to add competition at the position anyway, trading up to select Utah’s Caleb Lomu with the 28th overall pick. Lomu played almost exclusively left tackle in college, which fueled speculation about Campbell’s long-term future at the spot. The Patriots have consistently said Campbell isn’t moving, and coach Mike Vrabel has had Lomu working primarily at right tackle this offseason as heir apparent to 35-year-old Morgan Moses.
Camp Had Its Own Bumps Before Tuesday
Campbell’s path to a strong joint practice wasn’t entirely smooth. He missed practice time earlier in camp with an unrelated left arm injury, wearing a brace and sitting out a team scrimmage in early August while Marcus Bryant and Lomu took first-team reps in his absence. Vrabel said before that scrimmage that he expected Campbell back “after the weekend,” and the left tackle returned as a full participant on Aug. 10 — a day before the Colts came to Foxborough.
| Metric | 2025 Regular Season | 2025 Postseason (incl. Super Bowl) |
|---|---|---|
| Sacks Allowed | 5 | 1 (Super Bowl) |
| Penalties | 7 | — |
| Total Pressures (Super Bowl LX) | — | 14 |
Why It Matters Heading Into Week 1
New England opens its season on the road against Seattle on Sept. 9 in the NFL Kickoff Game — the same team that beat them in the Super Bowl six months earlier. Maye has already framed the rematch as fuel for training camp.
“I think it’s a chance for us to get some extra motivation during training camp,” Maye told reporters, via NFL.com. “Starting off with the bang like that, a chance to get an opponent that left a bad taste in our mouth.”
How Campbell holds up against Seattle’s pass rush in Week 1 will be the clearest test yet of whether last season’s finish was more injury-driven growing pain than a permanent red flag. A clean joint practice against a quality Colts front is one data point. A real game against the team that beat them in February is the one that will actually count.
