Mike Vrabel Confirms Will Campbell Will Not - I Repeat, NOT - Miss the Rest of the Season

Speaking for me personally, about the time CBS came out of the injury time out and we caught a glimpse of Will Campbell with the dreaded towel-over-the-head move, I immediately entered the Kubler-Ross Stages of Grief. Denial passed quickly. Anger took hold the rest of Sunday. And this morning I began Bargaining. But Thanksgiving week is a tough time to offer to give anything up. For "Whatever pleases Jesus." This is a holiday for giving thanks by overindulging on everything. So I decided to hold off for now. 

And the first reports were promising:

But the latest report is even better. We've got it straight from the only source that counts, Campbell will be back, later if not sooner:

So an MCL instead of an ACL, for both Campbell and Jarod Wilson, reportedly. Sprains, not tears. That's not dodging bullets; it's ducking two RPGs. 

Still less than ideal, obviously. And it makes it all the more imperative to lock up the No. 1 seed and get the playoff bye. But still, with the NFL computer giving the Pats a 99% chance of making the playoffs, there are no "must win" scenarios here. Sit Campbell and Wilson both for the Giants game Monday night. Get to the bye week. And start calling audibles for the Bills game at Gillette, which isn't until mid-December. And isn't mission critical thanks to them losing at Miami and Houston in the last three weeks. 

Now is a time to celebrate, not denigrate. But the one major concern about this roster coming out of camp was that it was thin at certain positions, and offensive line was the most troubling. When Campbell went out and Vederian Lowe came in, everyone in New England had negative, trippy, bad-acid flashbacks to last year. His 13 penalties, 5 sacks, 5 QB hits, 23 hurries for 33 total pressures, in just 501 pass blocking snaps. To put those numbers in perspective, he was 8th in penalties and 26th in pressures despite being 46th in opportunites. 

I'm sure lot of that had to do with coaching. Scott Peters was not well regarded in Foxboro. He tried to implement this "torque" or "wide hand" style of blocking. Chuks Okorafor was designated the starting left tackle in Week 1, played 12 snaps and decided he'd had enough of playing under the guy and dipped out of there. So there was plenty of dysfunction to go around. Maybe given the upgrade to Doug Marrone, Lowe can demonstrate why he's in his fourth NFL season. 

As far as Ben Brown subbing for Wilson until he gets back, you could do a lot worse. Last year, playing semi-out of position he was 11th among all centers in pass blocking efficiency, and 31st in Pro Football Focus run blocking grade. Again, that was under the previous regime. So let's grade on the curve and give him some benefit of the doubt.

The most important thing is that it seems will not have to find out if either Lowe or Brown are long term solutions. And for that, we can all be thankful over our turkey and stuffing. I'm glad I didn't Bargain anything away and still get to keep my rookie O-lineman. And plan on raising many glasses to our good fortune all week long. Cheers!

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