Images courtesy of LSU Athletics and Mike Christy/Arizona Athletics
By Andy Backstrom
NEFJ Correspondent
INDIANAPOLIS – Drake Maye needs help. Up front and on the outside.
The second-year Patriots quarterback could get a hand in one of those areas when New England makes its first selection in April’s NFL Draft.
As New England Football Journal pointed out earlier this week, executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and the Patriots could take their first swing of the draft on the defensive side of the ball.
But, with the No. 4 overall pick, New England might find itself in position to grab the top-rated offensive lineman or top-rated wide receiver in this year’s class.
LSU offensive tackle Will Campbell just started three years at left tackle and finished his career as a first-team AP All-American. Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan joined him while piling up 84 catches, 1,319 receiving yards and eight touchdown grabs last season.
While some regard Colorado two-way star Travis Hunter as a better receiver prospect than McMillan, Hunter is expected to primarily play cornerback at the next level.
So, for this exercise, McMillan is in the spotlight. And so is Campbell.
Both are full-time offensive prospects on the Patriots’ radar near the top of the draft.
LSU OT Will Campbell
Campbell carries himself with a polite but assertive confidence that’s not quite cockiness. He’s a straight shooter, and he’s got a work ethic molded by his days spent growing up on a farm in Monroe, Louisiana.
“It just taught me hard work, honestly,” Campbell said Saturday at the NFL Combine. “Being out in the sun, working, it does something to you.”
A reporter asked what kind of chores Campbell had to do.
“A lot of stuff that probably y’all wouldn’t understand and nobody else wanted to do,” he said before explaining that he used to unroll poly pipe – flexible and durable plastic piping used for water distribution – for miles and miles.
In other words, Campbell is used to doing the dirty work – on the football field as well. He’s a no-questions-asked kind of lineman.
And while he hadn’t met with the Patriots as of Saturday morning, he anticipated doing so, and his approach clearly mirrors that of New England head coach Mike Vrabel.
“A lot of teams that I’ve talked to, they see me as a tackle,” the 6-foot-6, 319-pound Campbell said. “I’ve told all the teams that I feel like I put the stuff on tape to show that I can play tackle at a very high level.
“But I’m willing to do whatever I can to help the team win. If you told me that I was going to start at right guard versus left tackle being a backup, I’m going to tell you to put me at right guard.”
Campbell is certainly tall enough to play tackle. His arm length, however, has raised questions about his ability to neutralize premier NFL pass rushers. Campbell’s measured in at 32 ⅝ inches, short of the elusive 33-inch number evaluators look for at the offensive tackle position.
“I think that I’ve shown everything I need to on tape to show I can play tackle at an elite level,” Campbell said. “You can go look at my tape. There’s not one play on there that, when I get beat, you say, ‘Oh, that’s because he has shorter arms.’
“Obviously I don’t have stereotypical offensive tackle arms, but I’m aware of that, and that’s something that I use every week to my game plan and preparation on how to attack different defenders.”
Campbell gave up only two sacks at LSU last season, according to Pro Football Focus, and zero the first nine games of the year. He also allowed just 18 pressures in 2024, and 49 total in 1,594 pass blocking snaps from 2022-24, per PFF.
Campbell believes everything is blocked with a lineman’s feet, and he emphasized that’s where he excels and can go toe-to-toe with any player hunting the quarterback.
“Obviously people have to nitpick something,” Campbell said. “I’ve heard it all my career. When I was coming out of high school, the college coaches said the same thing, and I proved them wrong. That’s something that I anticipate doing again.”
Campbell had a head-turning Combine for other reasons, too. He ran a 4.98 in the 40-yard dash, and he leapt an impressive nine feet and five inches in the broad jump.
His SEC tape tells the story: He’s a reliable, hard-nosed lineman with experience against future pros, both as a pass protector and as a run blocker. He was thrown into the fire as a true freshman starting left tackle in 2022. Now, in 2025, he’ll likely find himself starting at tackle as a rookie. Campbell is aware of the inevitable growing pains, and he’s ready to improve game-by-game.
“You got to come in and play and be out there making plays to come in and gain the respect of the older guys,” he said.
Campbell later added: “I feel comfortable coming in and being a vocal leader as a young guy.”
Arizona WR Tetairoa McMillan
Tetairoa McMillan, or TMac for short, doesn’t currently model his game after any NFL receiver, although he used to – Arizona Cardinals legend Larry Fitzgerald was his guy.
McMillan, a native of Waimanalo, Hawaii, wanted to wear No. 11 in high school but had to settle for No. 4, which he then made famous at University of Arizona, where he’s now the all-time leader in receiving yards (3,423). He accomplished that feat in three seasons, the final two of which he easily eclipsed the 1,000-yard receiving mark.
The 6-foot-4, 219-pound wideout wowed in 2023 with 90 grabs, 1,402 yards and 10 touchdowns. Then, last season, he put up similar numbers.
“I feel like people look at me as a big receiver, which I am – I’m physically dominant – but, at the end of the day, I’m able to run every route in the route tree,” McMillan said Friday at the Combine.
“I’m able to play inside or outside, and I feel like a lot of people, a lot of teams are sleeping on that right now.”
McMillan lined up in the slot at least 21.6% of his pass snaps each of his three seasons at Arizona, per PFF.
He’s perhaps best known for his contested catches. He’s got a combined 35 over the last two years, ranking in the top five of that category among all FBS wideouts in both 2023 and 2024, per PFF. His ability to go up and get the ball derives from his volleyball and basketball background.
But McMillan said Friday that his “explosiveness” is the most underrated part of his game.
“Obviously everybody knows about my 50-50 balls and what my catch rate is, but I feel like I can get in and out of my brakes as a big receiver good,” he said.
He was fifth among all Big 12 wideouts in yards after the catch (430) last year. Plus, he was 19th among all FBS wide receivers in that department by the end of the 2023 campaign, according to PFF. McMillan was asked if there are any NFL quarterbacks in particular he wants to play with, and his first answers were, unsurprisingly, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.
What he said next should catch the attention of Patriots fans.
“But I’m really looking forward to catching balls from the rookie quarterbacks,” McMillan said. “You want to have a quarterback that you can be with for a long time, and I’m definitely looking forward to that.”
Maye isn’t a rookie, but he’s one year removed from being one, and he could be in New England for quite a while. McMillan has, after all, already had what he called a “good meeting” with the Patriots already.
It sounds like Wolf could pass on the receiver position with the Pats’ first pick, but, if he and his team doesn’t, McMillan could be there to give Maye a big – and dynamic – downfield target.