Philly Front Office

Last night the Eagles swapped picks with the Kansas City Chiefs to select Jihaad Campbell, linebacker out of Alabama, giving up #164 in the process. Apparently, Howie Roseman had been trying to move up since pick #22 to get him but was repeatedly rejected. Instead, we took him at #31. Let’s take a look at all things Jihaad Campbell.

How the Pick Went Down

• The Eagles thought they had a deal at #22 with the Chargers but something happened. It was an awkward moment in the broadcast because when the Chargers pick clock hit 0:00, instead of saying “The Pick Is In” or moving to the Packers, it simply reset. That tells me that there was a deal that was called into the league office and was either rejected or the Chargers simply had second thoughts VERY late in the process. They picked Omarion Hampton instead which was pretty baffling. It feels like they panicked.
• At #23, the Packers weren’t trading out of their first round pick as the host city.
• Despite needing extra picks, the Vikings picked Donovan Jackson at #24. It probably would have taken two 3rd round picks or a 2nd to move up this far. Maybe that was too much for the Eagles.
• Houston simply liked what the Giants were offering more than what the Eagles were offering and made the trade for #25. The same thing happened with the Rams with the next pick.
• I was sure the previous attempts to trade up were to get ahead of Baltimore for Malaki Starks. Once this pick happened, I figured we were dead set on moving back. Apparently, Starks wasn’t the target though.
• People have asked why the Chiefs and Eagles needed to swap. This seems like a quid pro quo situation where Philly called up KC to make sure they weren’t picking Campbell. KC responds that of course they wanted him but could be persuaded to go with Simmons for a 5th round pick. All you need is to get burned not making this kind of deal once to do it every time. The certainty of getting your guy is worth it. We saw the same thing with the Bears and Jalen Carter 3 drafts ago.

Athleticism

There are two systems out there to get a sense of a player’s athleticism (other than actually watching them). The first is the spider chart which takes the raw combine numbers and compares them to other players at the position over the last 20 years or so. The wider the spider chart, the better they are comparably. Take a look at Campbell’s (courtesy of mockdraftable.com):

Needless to say, that’s awesome. Strangely the thing I like most is that his wingspan is huge despite having short arms. That means he is a WIDE dude. That’s where dad/farm strength comes from.

The other one is Relative Athletic Score (RAS) which takes the drill results and compares them to the player’s size. 10 is the highest with 9s being pretty damn athletic. Shemar Stewart and Nick Emmanwori scored perfect 10s this year, but it is not very common. Campbell scored a 9.88 (courtesy of RAS Football):

That score is 41 overall out of 3204 LBs tested in the last 38 years. Any way you slice it, we just drafted an athletic freak.

Production

The big knock on fellow athletic prospect Shemar Stewart is that he didn’t have any real production in college. Campbell on the other hand was a 2 year starter at Alabama and had 5 sacks, 117 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, and 2 forced fumbles in 13 games this year despite only being a part time pass rusher. He apparently only had 99 pass rush opportunities the whole season and managed to get to the QB that much. He knows what he’s doing.

Role

Howie Roseman didn’t definitively answer the question, but it seems like Campbell will be used in many different roles on the defense because he is that versatile, smart, and athletic. To start, he will probably be an off-ball linebacker next to Zack Baun until Nakobe Dean is back to full speed. Once he is, expect Campbell to pick up pass rush duties while Baun and Dean stick to coverage. That is an unbelievably fast and smart trio at linebacker.

What a front 7 that is right now. Nolan Smith, Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Jalyx Hunt, Campbell, Dean, and Baun. Good luck dealing with that speed on the EDGE, the power up the middle, and the awareness and versatility from those LBs. Damn! Oh, and besides the 28-year-old Baun, the other guys are all under 25.

Intangibles

Campbell’s family is from Gloucester County, NJ and he grew up an Eagles fan.¹ I said it last night, but imagine being in person at the draft and thinking that you might have to go back to the hotel without a team and then you get a call from Howie Roseman, GM of YOUR favorite team and the reigning Super Bowl Champions and absolute perfect fit for your skill set, and he tells you that you are going to be a Philadelphia Eagle. That’s like thinking you are the only kid that didn’t get a Christmas present and then you end up getting the best gift after everyone else.

Did you notice his on stage interview after getting picked last night? For my memory, he is the only draftee to take the microphone in order to speak. To have the presence of mind to do that instead of letting someone just put it in your face is incredible and stuck out compared to the others. That is a guy who has no fear of the spotlight and wants to be heard. That takes inherent leadership, a quality that the Eagles very obviously value. In 30 seconds, he blew me away off the field.

On February 24, Campbell turned 21 years old. That’s it. He is not done maturing and is already 6’3″ and 235 pounds. He also shows off impressive smarts on the field despite being younger than most. That is unbelievable.

Contract

About 15 years ago the NFL instituted the rookie pay scale to basically stop outrageous rookie contracts from cannibalizing cap space. Sam Bradford was the last top pick to get a huge deal when he signed a 6/$78.5m contract in 2010. The numbers deescalate based on your pick and are tied to a percentage of the salary cap.

Campbell’s deal will be a around 4/$15m according to Spotrac. This will put his cap number in the $3.5m range. For comparison, at #22 the Chargers will be paying Omarion Hampton about $3m more. I saw that Campbell was considered around the 12th best player in the draft. If you wanted to know what that contract would have been, Tyler Booker of the Cowboys (who some mocked to the Eagles at #32) will sign for $22.5m over 4 years. Campbell is going to give us elite level production for VERY little over the next 4 years.

Lastly…

Last year, had the Eagles traded up for Quinyon Mitchell, we would have loved it. We didn’t need to. The year before, if we had traded up for Jalen Carter or Nolan Smith, we would have loved it. We didn’t need to (1 negligible spot with the Bears). This year, we thought we had to move up for Jihaad Campbell and we would have loved it. We didn’t need to (again, 1 negligible spot). By staying put, the powder is still very dry on the Eagles pick stock. We keep banking elite talent without having to pull off crazy moves like the Jaguars Travis Hunter disaster or the Giants moving a 2nd and two 3s for Jaxson Dart when him or Sanders would have been there at 34 anyway. Just because you can trade, doesn’t mean you need to trade. Howie is in full control.

1. What a strange thing that happens in drafts. Abdul Carter is very outwardly an Eagles fan. I am assuming his family is too. Then he was drafted by the Giants. This isn’t just some other team, it is maybe our biggest rival. It is easy for him to compartmentalize his fandom now because he has a job to do. It doesn’t go away completely though. You see it with Micah Parsons. The Eagles are an ELITE organization. The Cowboys are fine, but they are playing games with Parsons. He knows this wouldn’t be happening in Philly. The Giants are very clearly NOT a good organization. You have to wonder how Carter will feel after a few years of their bullshit. Then there is the family. Do they all root for their biggest rival now? You cheer for your son, but it’s not like you just deck your life out in blue now when it had been such a beautiful green for so long. ↩︎