‘Trial by fire’: Keion White has absolutely no intentions of taking it easy on rookie Will Campbell
"The best way to learn how to not get ran through your face is by getting ran through your face."
FOXBOROUGH — The pressure is on rookie left-tackle Will Campbell as he grapples with the adjustment the speed and power of professional football.
With the pressure, comes physical punishment in the form of collisions and hand-to-hand combat in the trenches.
Such is the price that comes with being a top-5 pick. The Patriots had an immediate need and very little depth at his position.
Campbell starred in the SEC, but there is still a sizable leap from college football’s best conference to the pros. The Patriots desperately need him to be ready to go when the season opens a month from now.
So, what better teammate is there for the rookie better to spar with than 6-foot-5-inch, 285-pound Keion White who says his game is based on leading with violence?
White is big, strong, athletic, and still has plenty to prove. He recorded four sacks over the first two weeks of last season, then was held to just one over the rest of the year.
“Keion is an extremely talented guy, and I’m just extremely fortunate to have a guy like Keion,” Campbell said. “And not only guys like him but also [Christian Barmore], [Milton Williams], [K’Lavon Chaisson], Harold [Landry]. A lot of those guys have played a lot more football than me.
“So, anything that they can help me with, give me tips, and things that they see that can help with my game, that’s what a rookie asks for.”
White doesn’t mind helping his teammates, but he has absolutely no intentions of taking it easy on Campbell.
“It’s trial by fire,” White said. “The best way to learn how to not get ran through your face is by getting ran through your face. So, if somebody can do that every play he’s going to learn how to not let that happen.”
White made his presence felt right away, knocking Campbell to the ground twice during New England’s first padded practice last week.
But, the story doesn’t end with the first few blows.
“The biggest thing for Will is his willingness to learn. The ability to sometimes get beat, but not hold your head down,” White said. “A lot of times when you come in as a rookie, you’re going to lose reps. Everybody loses reps sometimes. Guys come in as five-stars, All-Americans, things like that thinking their the best in the world and when they face adversity sometimes, they shut down.”
“That’s something will doesn’t do,” White added. “He asks questions. He says ‘OK, how can I not lose this rep. He learns and he comes back better. That’s the best thing you can do, because there’s going to be learning curves. There’s going to be challenges.”
Campbell has offered more resistance since that first practice. It has been, generally, an up-and-down camp for him to this point. He has consistently practiced with the first-team and has been stacking reps against the Patriots’ best pass-rushers.
Now is the time to get as much experience as possible, because, a month from now, he’ll be dealing with players like Maxx Crosby and TJ Watt.
Training camp reps aren’t fully indicative of what would happen in an actual game, White pointed out. Hitting quarterbacks is generally off limits. Defensive players don’t just tee off the way they normally would against an opponent.
Plus, it’s practice, the time players get to experiment and work on different things.
“One-on-one don’t really matter,” White said. “There’s so many other things that go into pass-rushing that you don’t really know if you’re winning or losing until you get the quarterback.”
“You don’t really know if you’re winning or losing in training camp because the quarterback may slip out of the pocket.”
Either way, the clock is ticking, and the Patriots are counting on Campbell to be prepared for a position that has little margin for error.
He summed up the stakes quite nicely last December at the end of his final season at LSU.
“One thing we live by in the O-line room, a D-lineman gets one sack a game, and that’s the only thing he can do? Twelve games, he’ll be a top-5 pick,” Campbell said. “You give up one sack a game, twelve games, you’re going to be working at Amazon. Nothing wrong with that, but whenever we’re here, this is what we’re striving for.”
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