Top pick Will Campbell ready to ‘fight and die,' which has to make Drake Maye happy

New York Times

25-04-2025

'With the fourth pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, the New England Patriots select Will Campbell, tackle, LSU.'
— Roger Goodell, NFL commissioner
OK, so this is not 2015. It's 2025. And Goodell is no longer content with merely reading off the names and then otherwise staying out of the way. He now rides a bicycle around on the stage, as we saw in the run-up to the 2025 NFL Draft Thursday night in Green Bay, Wis.
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But, yes, absolutely, that was indeed Will Campbell making an appearance at No. 4, all big and proud and emotional, and decked out in a green pinstriped suit that looked like it was borrowed from the wardrobe room of the Broadway musical 'Chicago.'
As far as I know, there's no Mount Rushmore of Great Draft Night Introductory News Conferences. But Campbell spoke in such a way that Patriots fans could put aside the arm length/wingspan jabber for just a bit and embrace New England's glorious past while daydreaming about a promising future. While it'll be Campbell's job to help lead the Patriots to that promising future, the former LSU standout was more than happy to talk about the back-in-the-day Patriots, as in the days when he watched the games while growing up in Monroe, La.
Campbell didn't take us all the way back to the first of the two Tom Brady-led New England dynasties — he was, after all, born on Jan. 6, 2004, a month before the Patriots defeated the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII for the second of their three championships in four seasons — but he made it clear he has tuned in and been turned on.
When asked during a video conference if he has any special memories of watching the Patriots, Campbell said, 'They always used to just dominate every time I turned the TV on and the Patriots were playing. They were dominating whoever it was. You know, Tom Brady, Danny Amendola, Julian Edelman, Gronk, all those guys. Just dominating throughout the years that I was growing up.
'That's all I remember of them, just winning,' Campbell said.
Campbell then talked in such a way that made it seem as though the Patriots still go to the playoffs every year, still compete for the Super Bowl, still get the prime-time television slots and the likes of Jim Nantz, Al Michaels and Joe Buck calling the games.
'I'm just super excited and thankful to be wearing that logo on the side of my helmet and across my chest,' Campbell said. 'It's a complete honor.'
The only thing Campbell didn't say was that he believes in 'The Patriot Way,' the old-timey Foxboro football catchphrase that owner Robert Kraft has always loved and former coach Bill Belichick always, hated, hated, hated.
But there was a Belichick Way, which held that you never talk about the past. Everything with Belichick was always about the next play, the next game on the schedule, the next season. Were he still running the shop, Belichick might not have been impressed that Campbell took the bait during the video conference and started talking about Brady, Amendola, Edelman and Rob Gronkowski.
But so what? Aside from the mild surprise that Amendola came in at No. 2 on the Will Campbell Old-Time Patriots Depth Chart, there was nothing wrong, nothing, with talking about winning traditions that are no longer in place in Foxboro.
"We're happy as hell."
Inside the Patriots draft room as we select @will_campbell66. pic.twitter.com/44IBEso7HV
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) April 25, 2025
What Campbell was saying, I think, is that he has every intention of bringing the Patriots back to contention. Talk, of course, is cheap. And, yes, yes, yes, every newly minted first-round draft pick says exciting and upbeat things after extracting themselves from the Goodell embrace and trying on the crisp, new team cap. It's just that Campbell said it almost as a threat, as if directed at the defenses he'll be facing in 2025 and beyond.
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During a brief on-stage interview with the NFL Network's Jamie Erdahl after the announcement, Campbell delivered a quote that surely had Patriots quarterback Drake Maye jumping up and down on his couch: 'I'm gonna fight and die to protect them with everything I've got.'
Later on during this celebratory April night, Campbell talked more about Maye.
'He's a heck of a player, a heck of a leader,' Campbell said. 'He's the commander of our offense. I'm not only excited to play with him, but the rest of the team. I'm excited for the future that we have in Foxboro. And I think we've got a special season coming.'
According to Campbell, he became aware of the Patriots' interest in him at about Week 5 of the 2024 LSU football season, which is when executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf showed up at one of his practices.
'And I told him this is where I want to be,' Campbell said. 'And I told (Patriots southeast area scout) Alex Brooks that I want to be a Patriot.
'I had great interactions with everybody throughout the process,' he said. 'I saw a lot of them, private workouts … just being up there, getting to meet everybody.'
This is important information because it means Campbell was following the Patriots last season, and who knows, for a few seasons before that. It's just that he didn't mention it, because there's no sense living in the past. Not the recent past, anyway.
As for the glory days? Campbell had some fun with that Thursday night. But my hunch is it's the last time you'll hear him talk about the pre-2025 Patriots.