Patriots’ Will Campbell Avoided a Major Knee Injury: What Week-to-Week Means for New England’s Left Tackle

The Patriots got the best available news on Will Campbell this week, which given the specific knee involved is worth more than it sounds.

Campbell, the 22-year-old left tackle and the fourth overall pick in the 2025 draft, hurt his right knee in the second quarter of Sunday’s win over the Raiders. The diagnosis came back as an MCL sprain. Ian Rapoport first reported the sprain and that Campbell would “miss some time.” Tom Pelissero then reported the test results, which confirmed Campbell avoided a major knee injury, and that he is week-to-week.

Cameron Wolfe added the detail that matters most: the team views this as less severe than the knee injury Campbell dealt with as a rookie. No return timeline has been set.

Why the same knee changes the reaction

A year ago, Campbell tore the MCL in that same right knee. It was a grade 3 tear, the full-thickness version, and he missed four games in November. So when a 22-year-old left tackle goes down holding the same knee that already gave out once, the first fear runs well past a few missed weeks, straight to whether that ligament is going to be a recurring feature of his career.

That is the fear the tests answered. A sprain is not a grade 3 tear, and the Patriots’ internal read is that this is the smaller version of what happened last fall. Week-to-week with no surgery discussion attached is close to the best outcome available from the moment he went down.

The trade-off is that week-to-week also means nobody knows. New England has not put a date on it, and a timeline that is not set is a timeline that can stretch. MCL sprains are graded, and the grade determines everything about how long this lasts. The team has not put a number on it publicly, and until it does, the range is wide.

What it means for New England

Campbell is a second-year player drafted fourth overall to be the long-term answer at left tackle, which means his absence costs the Patriots in two different currencies. The obvious one is pass protection on Sunday. The less obvious one is development, because the snaps a young tackle misses in October are snaps he does not get back, and Campbell has now lost chunks of two consecutive seasons to the same joint.

The offensive line also has to absorb this at the same time as a backfield problem. TreVeyon Henderson is expected to miss multiple weeks with a high ankle sprain, with no surgery expected, per Adam Schefter. Losing a left tackle and a running back in the same week puts pressure on the interior of the line and on whoever handles the carries.

Still, take the week and compare it to the alternative. The Patriots won 45-17, they have Campbell in a week-to-week designation rather than on injured reserve, and the ligament that already failed once did not fail that way again. For a team whose long-term plan includes Campbell protecting the blind side for the next decade, the test results are the headline here, not the games he will miss.