Will Campbell got a pretty valuable offseason tune-up, and it came from one of the best tackles in the league.
Lane Johnson, the Philadelphia Eagles’ veteran and future Hall of Famer, spent time with the New England Patriots’ second-year tackle this summer, and the two got to know each other well enough that Johnson came away seeing a little of himself in Campbell.
“Will kind of reminds me of myself in a way. Just a country kid, drafted in the first round,” Johnson said after the Patriots and Eagles held their first joint practice on Wednesday.
“Saw the kind of pressures that are on guys like that. For me, I thought he had a really good rookie season.
Just for me, talking to him, our lives are similar in a lot of ways, just what we’re doing. You can see him just getting better.
I was watching some of him today, he looks thicker and bigger, he’s healed up from his knee injury.”
Campbell’s rookie year started with real promise. He stepped in right away as a Day 1 starter and protected quarterback Drake Maye’s blindside. But a torn MCL in November knocked him off track, and when he came back in time for the Patriots’ playoff run, he was not the same player.
That injury made this offseason about more than just getting stronger. Campbell was still going through therapy five days a week while trying to build on a first season that ended in frustration.
Johnson helped with that process by inviting him to work out in Dallas.
“How that thing came about at the gym, we just got it off the ground two months ago and invited some guys. He was one of the guys that showed up,” Johnson said on Wednesday.
“It was fun. We did some football stuff, did some workout, but mostly just talking ball and stuff off the field.”
Campbell said being in that kind of room mattered.
“When you’re around Lane Johnson, Triston Wirfs, Dion Dawkins, if they say something - they’ve all played almost 10 years plus, and all of them were All-Pro at some point - they know what they’re talking about,” Campbell said about the workouts.
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