The New England Patriots suffered an embarrassing 29-13 beatdown in Super Bowl LX against the Seattle Seahawks. It was somewhat of a snoozefest type game, as the Patriots were unable to score any points until the fourth quarter. Quarterback Drake Maye just couldn’t get it done, and his linemen struggled to protect him, especially Will Campbell, who has taken a lot of heat for the loss.
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Campbell allowed a whopping 14 QB pressures, per Next Gen Stats in the Big Game, which was by far the most of the entire 2025 season. He also gave up one of the Seahawks’ five sacks, four quick pressures, and overall played very poorly, which led to many questioning if he even deserved to be picked 4th overall last year.
However, former OT Terron Armstead, who played 12 seasons and earned five Pro Bowls, says the issues seen in Campbell in the Super Bowl, as well as the postseason, are fixable.
During his appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, Armstead began by explaining that Campbell showed very strong signs during the regular season. It wasn’t until he was injured in Week 12 with a Grade 3 MCL sprain that sidelined him for four games that he lost a bit of confidence and started playing with hesitation, leading to his poor performance.
“Campbell did a lot of really good things throughout his rookie campaign. He came in physical, aggressive. He was finishing guys, taking guys to the ground, really coming in and playing with confidence. He had an injury. He comes back from injury. You see the lack of confidence. You see the lack of strength,” Armstead said, before talking about the strong opponents Campbell had to face in the postseason.
“He goes through a stretch in the playoffs, a gauntlet of the best that the league has to present. You got [Texans’] Will Anderson Denil Hunter. You graduate from there, you go to [Denver’s] Nick Bonito, Jonathan Cooper. You’re promoted from there, and you go to the big dance against the plethora of rushers that the Seahawks presented.”
Armstead doesn’t quite believe that Campbell struggled because of his ability, but because of his technique. Including poor footwork, not being grounded enough to generate power, hesitation, and issues with balance and base. Those problems are fixable, Armstead argued.
“For Will, the issues that I saw repeatedly that kept getting him in trouble was technique, was footwork, was being in the ground, connected to the ground to where he can generate power, not just catch and absorb power from these guys,” said the former NFL star, adding,
“He was consistently able to get to the spot, the point of intersection between the defender and the quarterback, which is hard for young players. But the issue was once he got there- hesitation, uncertainty, no foundation, not having his weight in the ground, those are fixable. And um I believe he will get it fixed.”
What Armstead basically says is that Campbell’s initial positioning and understanding of the play were good, which is a good thing. And the rookie did other good things as well, so saying that he only struggled throughout the year is wrong. And we’d agree with him here.
Let’s see if the LSU Tigers product can get his issues fixed in the 2026 season, which won’t be easy. The New England Patriots will probably get a tougher schedule than last year. But Campbell can still surprise us, just like the Patriots team as a whole did last year.
