Chicago Bears HC Ben Johnson addresses the concerns surrounding Will Campbell's translation to the NFL in the best way possible
With the 2025 NFL Draft less than a month away, one of the most polarizing players set to be selected at the top of the draft is LSU offensive lineman Will Campbell.Based on what he showed on the field during his college career for the Tigers, there's no question this guy is a player who's […]
With the 2025 NFL Draft less than a month away, one of the most polarizing players set to be selected at the top of the draft is LSU offensive lineman Will Campbell.
Based on what he showed on the field during his college career for the Tigers, there's no question this guy is a player who's ready to dominate at the next level, but NFL front offices are having some slight concerns with his projection to the NFL level.
Those concerns are mainly rooted by Campbell's arm length, a legitimate concern when analyzing prior success rates with offensive tackles sharing similar measurables.
Now, every player is different, and arm length has never been something that negatively impacted Campbell's game going up against top SEC edge rushers.
"You can go look at my tape," Campbell said at the NFL Combine. "There's not one play on there that when I get beat, you say, 'That's because he has shorter arms.' Obviously, I don't have your stereotypical offensive tackle arms. I'm aware of that. That's something that I use every week in my game plan and preparation of how I'm going to attack."
During the LSU Pro Day, Campbell's measurables actually showed a much better number on his arm length compared to the Combine numbers and he again addressed the concerns team executives and coaches could have going into the draft.
"For two years, nobody had any measurements on me and nobody said anything about my play," Campbell said Wednesday, via Mike Triplett. "So now all of a sudden, an arm length decides if I'm a good player or not? I think it's BS."
At the end of the day, Campbell is still projects to be a solid NFL player while sticking at his natural position at left tackle and one team will surely look past those concerns and reap the rewards. New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, who's team owns the fourth overall selection, down-played any arm length concerns and he's not the only head coach who feels that way.
On Monday, Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson was asked about any concerns he might have about offensive tackles with smaller arm lengths and offered the best possible answer we've had so far.
"I love watching the tape without knowing anything," Johnson said during his interview with Adam Hoge of CHGO. "To me, that's the most important indicator about whether a guy can play football or not. As you're watching tape, if concerns arise about getting long-armed on the perimeter… and it becomes a consistent problem, then yeah, I'll look at arm length and see if it fact checks or not…
"But, really, the tape to me is more important than the measurables."
And when you look at the tape, Campbell is clearly the best blocking tackle in the entire class. During the 2024 season alone, Campbell allowed just two sacks and 18 total pressures on 558 pass blocking snaps.
Hearing that come from Johnson is interesting in itself. The Bears are one of the teams potentially interested in drafting Campbell with the 10th overall pick and it sounds like Johnson wouldn't have a problem making that decision if he's there.
This guy plays football at a high level and shouldn't have his draft stock be determined by what the number says on his arm length. And it's good to see head coaches selecting at the top of the draft feel the same way about it.
