Read between the lines: Eagles may have drafted a ‘linebacker,’ but Jihaad Campbell projects as an edge rusher

Howie Roseman and the Eagles selecting Campbell can be viewed as an attempt to get a Micah Parsons-type outside linebacker.

Jihaad Campbell was a ball hawk at Alabama, with 117 tackles, five sacks, two forced fumbles, two passes defensed, and an interception last season.Read moreVasha Hunt / AP

by Jeff McLane

Published April 25, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET

It’ll be a fun story for days, maybe weeks or more: The Eagles draft a linebacker in the first round for the first time in 46 years.

There will be interviews with the last guy — Jerry Robinson. Think pieces on Howie Roseman’s evolution on the position. Deep dives into the longtime Eagles general manager’s recent willingness to spend on linebackers and how it was spurred by Vic Fangio’s defensive scheme and/or to counter offenses running the ball more.

And, in some way, those narratives will have merit. The Eagles did select a bona fide off-ball linebacker with the 31st overall pick: Alabama’s Jihaad Campbell. And he might very well end up playing that spot in the NFL for some of the reasons listed above.

But Roseman didn’t have Campbell ranked in the top 10 of his draft board — as he claimed — because he envisioned the South Jersey product exclusively as a linebacker in the traditional mold of Bill Bergey, Jeremiah Trotter (both versions), Robinson, et al.

He saw an edge rusher who just happened to play off-ball linebacker in college — and play it at a high level — out of need. He saw an athletic 21-year-old with the ability to pressure quarterbacks. And Roseman wasn’t shy about projecting where he hopes Campbell ends up having his greatest impact.

“This is a guy who was recruited from IMG by Alabama as an edge rusher, hand-in-dirt edge rusher,” Roseman said just after midnight Friday. “They had some injuries at Alabama. They played him off the ball. You see his explosiveness and his speed.

“And, really, it’s kind of interesting, and we talked about this a lot: you see Penn State — give them a lot of credit for what they’ve done. They’ve had guys off the ball move to edge rushers. Obviously, their last two guys who were drafted high, they started off the ball and they moved to edge rushers.”

One of those Penn Staters — Abdul Carter — was taken third overall by the New York Giants. The other — Micah Parsons — was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the 2021 draft. Carter may have started off the ball at State College, but he played almost exclusively on the edge last season.

Parsons made a similar move, too, during his career as a Nittany Lion, but he went back to off-ball in his final season. When he came out, few NFL teams viewed him as an edge rusher. Dallas did and took him two spots after the Eagles picked wide receiver DeVonta Smith.

Roseman certainly doesn’t regret the Smith decision. But if the Eagles had Parsons ranked equally, and, as an edge rusher, they likely would have chosen him ahead of a receiver, even if Smith partly was a do-over for drafting Jalen Reagor the year prior.

Nevertheless, the Campbell selection can be viewed as Roseman’s attempt to get a Parsons-type outside linebacker who can thrive in the modern speed game. That may require him to line up mostly on the edge. Or inside over the center. Or at the second level. Or even in coverage.

But, ideally, the 6-foot-3, 235-pound Campbell will be most effective in disrupting the pass.

“I don’t want to put this player in that box,” Roseman said. “That’s what I’m saying. This guy can grow into anything you want. And what I’m saying is [Fangio] has done a tremendous job with kind of educating me on the way that he looks at things and the way I look at things, and we have a lot of these conversations about it, and, obviously, those are great conversations for me. I’m continuing to learn every day.”

Fangio may be one of the greatest to ever coach linebackers. As a positional coach with the New Orleans Saints in the 1980s and 90s, he led the Dome Patrol corps of Sam Mills, Rickey Jackson, Pat Swilling, and Vaughan Johnson. With the 49ers in the early 2010s as a defensive coordinator, he had Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman (another Penn Stater).

This past season, he took an underutilized hybrid in Zack Baun from the Saints and helped turn him into an All-Pro. Baun’s flowering in Philly may have come at off-ball, but his experience as an edge allowed Fangio to line him up on the end as a fifth lineman in some scenarios.

Campbell’s versatility should make it harder for defenses to prepare for him if he is to be a moving piece.

“I think just being a dominant force for the defense,” Campbell said during a Zoom call when asked where he envisions the Eagles will play him. “Just putting me wherever and just finding different games for me to play in and make an impact.”

The Eagles have cross-trained defensive players before, but Campbell will likely need to start with one specific position group. Asked if that would be with linebackers coach Bobby King or outside linebackers/defensive end coach Jeremiah Washburn, Roseman and coach Nick Sirianni said that had yet to be decided.

Campbell might have tipped their hands. When asked about his predraft conversations with the Eagles, he mentioned only Fangio and Washburn. There are opportunities to play right away at both spots

Baun, who signed a three-year, $51 million contract in March — significantly more than Roseman has ever spent on an inside linebacker — will start at one off-ball spot. The other is open with Nakobe Dean unlikely to be ready for the season opener following knee surgery. Trotter Jr. should vie for the job.

The Eagles have plenty of room to add another edge rusher to their rotation following Josh Sweat’s free agency exit and Brandon Graham’s retirement.

Campbell was a ball hawk at Alabama and in his last season alone recorded 117 tackles, five sacks, two forced fumbles, two passes defensed, and an interception. A knock from a few NFL scouts was that he may lack the necessary instincts to excel at the next level.

But he still was relatively new to the position, and his skills may be best suited to the edge. Consider his speed numbers: Campbell’s 4.52-second 40-yard dash was in the 89th percentile among off-ball linebackers. But if he had been grouped with edge rushers at the NFL combine, he would have finished behind only Tennessee’s James Pearce Jr. (4.47).

A more important metric for edge rushers is the 10-yard split, and while Campbell’s time (1.53 seconds) was in the 92d percentile among those in his position group, he would have been the fastest vs. edge rushers and ahead of Pearce’s 1.56 split.

So why did he last until pick No. 31 — the Eagles sent a fifth-rounder to the Chiefs to move up a spot and to ward off other teams potentially swooping in for Campbell, Roseman said — if the Eagles had given him a top-10 grade?

For one, Campbell had shoulder surgery in March. Campbell said he injured it during the season, “just trying to bang heads with somebody.” Neither Roseman nor Campbell offered much detail on when he will be at full strength. But there reportedly are other concerns teams had about his medicals, possibly his other shoulder and a knee.

“We understood some of the questions that were going on with him,” Roseman said. “We spent a lot of time with our doctors and our medical staff ensuring that we’re all seeing it the same way.”

Roseman has gambled before on players with checkered health histories, and the results have been mixed, from Sidney Jones (bad) to Sweat (good), from Landon Dickerson (good) to Dean (to be determined).

In Campbell’s case, the general manager said the Eagles didn’t have “long-term concerns.” Some teams clearly did.

“We share medical grades with other teams,” Roseman said. “Obviously, they all go to the combine. So I don’t want it to be like we’re the only team that was confident with him medically.”

But that wasn’t the only thing the Eagles were confident about. When it came to Campbell and drafting him in the first round, it was still delivering on their long-held belief in getting difference-makers in the passing game up front.

In a year or a decade’s time, that may end up the story.