Ferocious Linebacker Turning Heads At Eagles Camp

There was once long ago a teammate on the wrestling team who was as nice as they come off the mat, polite, respectful, quiet, and fun to be around. Before he took the mat, he would pace back and forth like a lion who hadn’t eaten in three days waiting for the cage door to rise. Then, attack.

A lot of wrestlers are like that. So too are football players. The most recent example that reminds me of my former teammate is Eagles first-round pick Jihaad Campbell, a lion ready to attack whenever he takes the football field.

He is certainly engaging enough, having talked with him at DeVonta Smith's celebrity softball game at the end of June. He's also ferocious. Maybe sometimes too much when his teammates are involved. Campbell doesn’t back down when it comes to tackling. Perhaps it’s a lesson he will learn as his summer lengthens, once he can tame the lion inside.

For now, though he has made two tackles to the ground. Both of them from behind.

He made on one Dallas Goedert after a short reception that Campbell stopped dead in its tracks with a tackle, no YAC allowed, on Thursday. The players were in shoulder pads.

“I think he’s been doing really good,” said Goedert of Campbell. “I think his intensity is great. Obviously, the one he tackled me on a little bit, maybe that’s not a play we want in practice, when the back’s turned, a shot like that.

“It didn’t bother me at all. I’m excited for him. But yeah, I want to pull people back, not push them forward. You don’t want someone who you gotta be like, ‘you gotta play harder, you gotta do this, you gotta do that.’ You gotta be like, ‘OK, you’re playing a little bit too hard. Let’s tone it down a little.’ He’s definitely got that in him. He’s been doing a great job.”

A day later, with the players in full pads, Campbell tackled Saquon Barkley inside the 5. Bakley had been chirping at various players, getting chest-to-chest with Reed Blankenship after one run, talking to Jalen Carter - perhaps the running back’s way of ramping up the intensity in practice.

On the Campbell tackle, Barkley was a bit slow to get up, but get up he did, and on the next play, he ran in for a touchdown.

It was one of those scores that quarterback Jalen Hurts sensed immediately and raised his arms in a touchdown signal, similar to when he knew Barkley was off to the races for a 78-yard touchdown in the snow against the Rams.

After Barkley scored this one in practice, Hurts was so excited, he ran into the end zone and jumped on Barkley’s back to celebrate. It was a meaningless touchdown on the seventh day of training camp, but clearly it was more.

“We have a good relationship,” said fellow linebacker Smael Mondon, who is in the same draft class as Campbell. “Jihaad’s funny. We relate to a lot of things off the field, then, on the field, I feel we have similarities to our game. Both kind of big backers, athletic, can move around well. I feel we complement each other well. Even off the field, he’s a cool person talking to him. A genuine dude.”