“I’m really not worried about what anybody else has to say.”

FOXBOROUGH — Will Campbell has heard all of the nicknames and criticism from naysayers at this point.
The Patriots rookie might have been the first offensive lineman taken off the board (No. 4 overall) in the 2025 NFL Draft. But even with his sterling career at LSU, the 6-foot-6 left tackle’s viability as a franchise fixture tasked with keeping Drake Maye off the gridiron was put into question due to his shorter arm length.
“Apparently to everybody I have T-Rex arms,” Campbell joked to reporters prior to the NFL Draft.
That label has apparently stuck with Campbell even after arriving in Foxborough.
“Someone sent in the mail a T. Rex. I don’t know where it is, but a plastic T. Rex to my locker,” Campbell said Wednesday at Gillette Stadium. “I thought it was funny, but yeah, I mean, I never really cared. It wasn’t relevant or [would] help me in any way possible to help me do what I’m going to do.”
Campbell’s arm length of 32 5/8 inches sits in the seventh percentile among offensive tackles in the NFL, while his wingspan of 77 3/8 inches is also below average.
But the 21-year-old rookie is already putting himself in rare company already in terms of his play at the line of scrimmage.
While it’s to be expected for rookies to go through their fair share of growing pains in the NFL, Campbell has helped stabilize an offensive line that had routinely plagued New England’s listless offense over the last few seasons.
As Drake Maye has emerged as one of the top QBs in the game this season, Campbell has done his part to protect his blind side. Over his 431 offensive snaps so far this season, Campbell has only relinquished two sacks and 15 total pressures through seven games.
Campbell is already serving as a welcome remedy on New England’s offensive line, with plenty of room to grow.
Given all of the flak that he received leading into the 2025 season, Campbell was asked on Wednesday if he relished proving the doubters wrong so far this fall.
“I mean, if you want me to be completely honest with you, I was never trying to prove them right,” Campbell said. “I know that I was chosen here for a reason. So it was never really about proving anybody who said that my arms were too small wrong.
“It was just coming here to try to help his team. And [I] just want to keep continuing to do that each and every week in any way that I can. But I’m really not worried about what anybody else has to say.”
For Campbell, the priority for now is continuing to hone his craft and help elevate a Patriots team looking to extend its win streak to five games in a row on Sunday.
But New England’s Week 8 bout against the Cleveland Browns will stand as the most daunting matchup of Campbell’s young career — especially with the rookie set to draw plenty of matchups against one of the top pass-rushers in the league in Myles Garrett.
“He does some stuff that a lot of people can’t do,” Campbell said of Garrett, who will take on the Patriots on Sunday at Gillette Stadium. “I mean, he’s a great player. They have a lot of good players across the front. The [linebackers] are playing well, they got some good DBs. So you know that they have a really talented group from top to bottom. So we got to be ready to go this Sunday.”