Campen has certainly been a target during his tenure as OL coach but to me he’s an example of the limitations of fans’ knowledge. There are at least two critical variables beyond Campen’s control: Scheme and talent. We’ve hashed and re-hashed the ZBS (zone blocking scheme) and like many of you, I’ve never liked it. IMO it’s evolved some in Green Bay, even beyond mixing in more traditional blocking schemes. (One of the reasons I hated it was the way it was executed in Denver – OL would regularly dive at the legs of players to the play side, meaning the DL would many times be looking away from the diving OL. It was so dirty (IMO) the Packers didn’t practice that technique against their own players.) Anyway, Campen didn’t play or coach the ZBS until Jagodzinski brought it to Green Bay. Has he been trying to influence McCarthy to go away from the ZBS? Has he been a force for modifying it? We just don’t know.
One of the so-called advantages of the ZBS is it doesn’t require elite talent on the OL to execute it. It calls for more finesse-type players - even in the run game - than traditional blocking schemes. No matter the scheme while Campen has some input on player acquisition, we don’t know how much and no one would argue he has the last say on acquisition or roster spots. Of course no one in the Packers organization is, or should be, immune from criticism but what bothers me about the criticism aimed at Campen comes from those who don’t qualify their criticism regarding scheme and personnel while refusing to give him credit for any of the positives on OL, like the development of Bakhtiari and Linsley.
How good or bad an OL coach is Campen? I don’t know. I like the hiring of Solari because of his vast experience. Because of his age, one concern may be how well he relate to players. I don't have enough information about that either.