Film Review: New England’s Offensive Tackles

Early on, in the inevitable overreaction period of the NFL season, I’d guess there were one or two Patriots fans wondering whether their team might be better served to have wide receiver Denzel Boston on the field rather than offensive tackle Caleb Lomu standing on the sidelines.

Fast-forward a month, and things have steadied out; A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs are evidently incapable of staying on the field together (Doubs went on IR with a shoulder injury suffered in the same game Brown returned from a high-ankle sprain, pushing off the date we’ll see the high-profile free-agent add and trade acquisition together), but Drake Maye has steadied the ship in the meantime, and offensive line injuries have thrust Lomu into action.

I first wanted to write about Lomu after his fill-in appearance against the Raiders; the second offensive tackle drafted out of Utah in the first round, Lomu immediately struck me as a player with a lot of ease to his game. He is a smooth player with the requisite tools to play the tackle position, and while he may never be a mauler in the run game, I’ve seen enough examples to think he will be a capable player in that regard. The comparison that jumps out to me is longtime Falcons offensive tackle Jake Matthews; both have good, if not freakish, athletic traits, they are easy movers as pass protectors, and they can execute in the run game even if teams aren’t going to make them the tip of the spear in their gameplan.

The NFL being what it is, Will Campbell, who was expected to miss the Jets game, wound up suiting up, but Lomu filled in at right tackle for Morgan Moses. Moses returned to the lineup for the Chicago game, but given the improvements Campbell has made this season (more on him later) and the promise Lomu has shown, the Patriots should be confident the young core of their offense will continue to grow in the season to come.

Lomu as a Pass Protector

Lomu’s pass protection was highly regarded coming out in this year’s draft, so we’ll spend less time here, but I wanted to start by spotlighting a pass protection rep against Jets rookie edge rusher David Bailey, who has shown a TON of juice off the edge in his Year One campaign. On this rep, Lomu makes it look easy as he takes his set, gets hands on Bailey, and maintains his balance before finishing the rep as Bailey loses his balance. It’s one example, and I expect Bailey will get his wins at some point during their respective rookie deals, but it’s a lot of what makes Lomu’s tape so easy to like.

Lomu in the Run Game

This is what I was interested to see, because there were a lot of questions on Lomu’s overall demeanor during the draft process. I’m not going to suggest he’s Darnell Wright, but the following clips made me think he’ll be just fine in this regard - particularly given what it appears he will bring in pass protection. Here’s a clip of him at the point of attack, tasked with generating movement on Harrison Phillips with the backside guard pulling around. He gets help getting started, but handles Phillips well enough for guard Matt Pryor and tight end Hunter Henry to work off to their next blocks.

On this rep, he kicks out Kingsley Enagbare on a solo block at the point of attack and once again generates movement.

And while this may not be the ideal leverage, it’s another example of Lomu getting the end taken care of at the point of attack with a pull coming from behind him, this time letting the guard clean out to the second level inside him.

It’s a small sample size so far, and as long as Morgan Moses continues to play at his current level, there’s no need to rush Lomu onto the field; that said, it’s encouraging to see that the Patriots have a quality swing tackle in the short term and a bookend solution in the long-term.

Will Campbell in 2026

There were a number of offensive players who suffered through a difficult playoff run in 2025 - Drake Maye among them - but perhaps no lineman generated more discussion than Will Campbell, who was returning from an in-season knee injury for that playoff run.

Given what Campbell had shown before his knee injury, I believed he would be a good NFL player - something that jumped out early on was that his feet, particularly in the run game, were terrific - but I also thought he needed to move inside to guard. A third of the way into the NFL season, I still believe Campbell could be an All-Pro at guard, but I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’ll likely never see that played out, because Campbell is playing pretty solid ball at tackle.

Multiple things have played into this; Campbell looks a bit thicker on film this year, and it’s shown up in improved play strength, which has improved his ability to anchor against bull rushers. In addition, I have noticed him using his athleticism to his advantage in pass protection by quick-setting defenders more frequently; here are two examples against Chicago’s Dayo Odeyingbo…

and Austin Booker…

It’s not to say he doesn’t have movements where edge rushers get him in awkward positions - given his size limitations, he’s never going to be Amarius Mims - but Will Campbell sure isn’t preventing them from moving the ball on offense this year, and there’s a lot to be said for checking that box at left tackle.

Given that Alijah Vera-Tucker is once again on injured reserve, there’s a good chance that New England will be looking for a new option at the left guard position next offseason; given that Jared Wilson has been just ok at center, I would LOVE to see them add a more physical element at that spot - if Colts guard Quenton Nelson moves via free agency or trade, he would be an amazing fit, but something along the lines of what the Jags have gotten from rookie Emmanuel Pregnon would also be a nice boost.

Fortunately, there’s a lot more avenues for finding that type of impact on the interior - Pregnon was a late 3rd-round pick at 88 overall - and with young core players at premium positions like quarterback, offensive tackle (x2), and cornerback, the Patriots will have resources to fill out those types of roles across the roster.

They might not ever be in the discussion as the best OT tandem in the NFL - though, to be fair, we’ve seen stranger things in the NFL - but even if they are more like Seattle’s duo of Charles Cross and Abe Lucas, there is a lot of benefit from having a long-term consistency at offensive tackle, and New England appears well-positioned for at least half-a-decade of that experience.