Howie Roseman didn't want to fit Jihaad Campbell into a box as purely an off-ball linebacker.
The 21-year-old out of Alabama, who the Eagles traded up one spot to ensure they could select him at 31st overall in the NFL Draft on Thursday night, is too versatile and has too much potential to look at him that narrowly, the general manager said, especially once defensive coordinator Vic Fangio gets to start working with him.
"This guy can grow into anything you want," Roseman told the local media at the NovaCare Complex after the first round of the draft concluded Thursday night.
And just as important, he added: Campbell's fast, fast enough to help the Eagles keep up in an ever-changing NFL that can shift just as quickly.
"At the end of the day, like you see it, and what's going on in the league, and Zach Baun's a great example," Roseman said. "These guys, they can rush from the edge, they can play in space, they can affect the quarterback from depth, from the edge, and that's what we're looking for. We're looking for guys like that.
"The league has changed, and I think the league is a speed game, and when you have guys with those kinds of explosive qualities, you want to get as many as you can."
To keep you as far ahead of the curve as you can.
Yet ANOTHER first-round draft pick who was recruited to Alabama by Coach Saban 🤯🔥
Nick Saban talks about what makes 31st overall pick Jihaad Campbell a great addition to the Eagles 💪 pic.twitter.com/EzXAzB0KaO— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 25, 2025
Campbell's name getting called on Thursday night signaled a few things as he took his walk to the stage in Green Bay to put on his hat and hold up his Midnight Green jersey.
As a native of Camden County, it was the hometown kid coming home to join the team he grew up watching.
Through the lens of recent history and team construction, it was another sensible pick by Roseman of a player coming from an SEC school.
As the defending Super Bowl champions, it was "the rich getting richer," as Campbell put it to the ESPN broadcast with a big smile on his face.
But from the view of previous tendencies and well-known organizational philosophy, the pick felt like it signaled a bit of a shift from the norm, too.
Campbell was the first pure linebacker the Eagles have drafted in decades, and after years of mostly drafting in the early rounds to ensure that they were stocked up at the offensive/defensive lines first and foremost, the past 12 months or so on defense have had an eye on the position groups further back.
Cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean were the first- and second-round picks at the draft last year, and both jumped into roles as starters. Nakobe Dean, before his season-ending injury, made major strides at linebacker, and then Zack Baun emerged as the breakout star right next to him, who became a top priority for the Eagles to re-sign in the spring after their defense locked the Chiefs down in the Super Bowl without ever needing to blitz an extra man even once.
The defensive setup Fangio instilled took away an opposing quarterback's options over the field, which in turn drained them of the time they had to get the ball away with rushers like Nolan Smith and Jalen Carter cracking down.
Campbell, with clear anticipation, athleticism, and strength, only adds to that picture. It's just a matter of where.
"We've seen what [Vic] can do with guys with this kind of skill set," Roseman said. "You just look around the league, the teams that we have to get through to get where we want to go, they have fast, explosive quarterbacks and players in their backfield that we've got to bring down at all levels of our defense.
"We need a tremendous amount of front-seven players to contain those guys, and so it's always been a priority for us. This doesn't deviate from what we believe. We believe in affecting the passing game on offense and defense, and this guy can affect the passing game on defense."
Maybe when, too.
Jihaad Campbell once blasted Jaxson Dart's head off in a game. The Eagles got an absolute dog. pic.twitter.com/Y8k8DJgI6O
— Jeff McDevitt (@JeffMcDev) April 25, 2025
Campbell tore the labrum in his left shoulder and had surgery to repair it after the NFL Scouting Combine in late February, which may have factored into his slide to the Eagles down on the draft board, and doesn't couple particularly well at linebacker next to Dean's torn patellar injury, which also requires its own lengthy rehab process back from.
Pre-draft reports, however, did expect Campbell to be ready for training camp for wherever he landed. Roseman also emphasized his trust in the Eagles' medical team's readings on Campbell when speaking on Thursday night, and made a point to re-establish that the draft should be about the long haul. He said the selection of another linebacker had nothing to do with Dean's recovery status either.
The Eagles want Campbell to play well in Philly for a long time.
"We have a lot of confidence in Nakobe Dean," Roseman said. "This has nothing to do with Nakobe.
"This had to do with the fact that we had a top-10 talent on our board. We love the player, and we love the versatility. For us, that was it. That was really it. If we start drafting for need, or we start turning down top-10 players when we're picking in the 30s. It's not gonna be good for our football team."
So they moved in on Campbell. Now they'll see what he grows into.
ONE OF US #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/7mXl09kDC8
— Jeff McDevitt (@JeffMcDev) April 25, 2025
MORE: 15 players who make sense for the Eagles in Round 2
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