Eagles' Jihaad Campbell Ready For Another Closeup

The test is a stiff one against Buffalo’s No. 1 ranked rushing offense, which features the league leader on the ground, James Cook, and perhaps the most dominating plus-one in the running game in MVP quarterback Josh Allen.

Fangio prefers Dean at this stage because of his instincts, football IQ, and impact on the running game, so Campbell has an opportunity to prove some things in a stern test.

What can be said is that Campbell’s “benching” wasn’t based on performance. When the South Jersey native left the lineup, he was graded as a top 10 off-ball LB in the league by Pro Football Focus.

Fangio recently admitted that Campbell’s development as a stacked LB was slowed a bit by ramping up his usage on the edge due to a need at the time.

Phillips’ arrival particularly enabled the Eagles to move Campbell back to Bobby King at ILB full-time, and things are back on track.

“Just every day coming to work, working his butt off, preparing as if he was playing the whole game, half the game, couple plays in the game,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said when asked about Campbell’s development. “Just consistency with that, his work ethic and how he goes about his day.”

Campbell has also kept an outwardly positive attitude, something that is not always easy for young players.

“I think he's a guy that guys genuinely like to be around and coaches genuinely like to be around, so yeah. I just love the way he goes about his everyday work and I see him continuing to get better,” said Sirianni.

The only step left for Campbell in Buffalo is to show his work.

“I think it’s all about learning and growing,” Campbell said. “I look up now and it’s Week 15, Week 16 of my rookie year, so it’s moving fast, moving pretty quickly, and it’s all about squeezing as much as I can in this first year and understanding what’s at task, and what I have to do to prepare to be the best version of myself.”