Alabama LB Jihaad Campbell is 'Mr. Can Do It All,' and maybe a fit for Detroit Lions
Picking players for a mock draft can be a mind-bending exercise.
You start with a pool of qualified talent, you try to match fit and personality and traits with team need, and you shuffle players based on whatever rumors you hear.
And when it comes to the Detroit Lions, you can take need out of the equation.
For four years now, Lions general manager Brad Holmes has been clear about his draft philosophy: Take the best available player who fits the team.
He has talked about not having depth charts in his draft room. He wore a “Positional Villain” sweatshirt to drive home the point last year. And history shows, especially early in the draft, he’s a man of his word.
In 2023, Holmes foreshadowed the first-round picks of Jahmyr Gibbs and Jack Campbell when he warned about a month before the draft that teams “can make a lot of mistakes” drafting for need. The Lions traded down from No. 6 to No. 12 in the first round and took Gibbs, a rare top-15 running back, and added Campbell, an off-ball linebacker — another position often pushed down draft boards because of value — six picks later.
Gibbs was one of the NFL’s best running backs last season and a key cog in the league’s highest-scoring offense, and Campbell led the Lions with 131 tackles and was a cornerstone of an improved but injured defense.
Campbell is the only off-ball linebacker to go in the top 20 of the past three drafts, and that fact was lingering in my head as I did my second mock draft this week. Teams don’t value the position quite like they used to; Roquan Smith, the highest-paid inside linebacker in the NFL, averages $20 million per year on his contract, less than the top running back, safety and right guard. And that could cause one of the draft’s more intriguing talents, Jihaad Campbell, to slide to the Lions late in the first round.
Jihaad Campbell isn’t one of the five or six blue-chip players in this draft, but he did a lot of things well in his three seasons at Alabama. He had 117 tackles and five sacks last year. He earned first-team All-SEC honors with is sideline-to-sideline play. And he did it while lining up all over Alabama’s front seven as an off-ball linebacker and pass rusher.
“I feel as though I’m Mr. Can Do It All,” Campbell said at the NFL combine in late February. “I’m a Swiss army knife as they like to say. I can blitz through the A gap, I can come off the edge, I can play middle runner Tampa 2 ... I can play man-to-man on a receiver, tight end, running back. Anything.”
I doubt defensive coordinators will want Campbell playing man coverage on most NFL receivers, but he is one of the most versatile defensive players in the draft. He can play as a run defender or blitzer or drop into coverage, and his pliability gives his defense an element of disguise.
Campbell said at the combine his favorite thing to do is play coverage as a Tampa 2 runner down the middle of the field, not the answer you’d expect from a thumper at 6 feet 3 and 235 pounds.
“Might sound a little different, but I love to show my versatility when I’m in coverage playing Tampa 2,” he said. “They think a big guy like me can’t cover those guys going down the field vertically, so I think that’s one of my biggest games. And obviously rushing the passer for sure.”
The Lions don’t need a linebacker. They have Jack Campbell under contract for at least two more years, just signed Derrick Barnes to a three-year extension and return veteran Alex Anzalone as their other starter. Malcolm Rodriguez, Ezekiel Turner and the newly-signed Grant Stuard provide depth.
But need matters less to Holmes than fit, and Jihaad Campbell seems like a fit for the Lions and what they want to do defensively under new linebacker-centric coordinator Kelvin Sheppard.
The Lions need defensive line help, and I suspect they’ll take an edge rusher fairly high in the draft. Holmes has never feared trading up on draft day, and the Lions will be a candidate to move up and grab a pass rusher they like.
I gave Texas A&M defensive end Nic Scourton to the Lions in my first mock and still think he’s a great fit from a play style and personality standpoint.
The same could be said for Campbell, who would add value to the Lions in a number of ways if he makes it to Pick No. 28.
“I want to be a leader,” Campbell said at the combine. “I want to be a key contributor to whatever I can do. And if that’s me going to inside backer and having somebody else go to outside backer so they can get production or they can create that value, too, and help the team, so be it. Let’s do it.”
Dave Birkett will sign copies of his book, "Detroit Lions: An Illustrated Timeline," at 7 p.m., March 24, at the Birmingham Public Library. Order your copy here. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Brad Holmes' word is why I gave Jihaad Campbell to Lions in mock draft
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