Jihaad Campbell’s rapid rise in ‘Block Destruction University’ signals he’ll start Week 1

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PHILADELPHIA — There is a big, bold poster inside the room where the Philadelphia Eagles’ inside linebackers meet. Bobby King, their position coach, hung it there. On it, King affixed multiple abbreviations. BDU. BD Tech. BDCC. King included every kind of classification of higher education to emphasize what he intends his young linebackers to master.

“Block Destruction University,” explained Smael Mondon Jr., a fifth-round rookie. “He’s saying everybody’s going to get a degree from here whenever you’re done with him.”

Everybody. From Zack Baun, their All-Pro valedictorian, to a pool of second-year linebackers and rookies, including first-round pick Jihaad Campbell, whose immediate responsibilities warrant their schooling. King is their spirited professor with the salt-and-pepper beard. He’s their 47-year-old former UTEP nose tackle, who, in practice, straps a pad to his chest where there once was a No. 99. Hit me! the outfit demands. One after another, the linebackers strike him with strong hands during individual drills. One after another, they refine the block-destroying technique King says rookies generally need to improve.

“These guys in college,” King said, “sometimes when they get to me, sometimes they’re born without arms.”

Translation: College linebackers generally don’t use their hands very well. That’s why King, who’s spent 14 of his 16 seasons coaching linebackers for five NFL teams, said “it’s hard to project some of these guys in the pros.” Some prospects impress in what he calls “the underwear Olympics” (the NFL Scouting Combine) but struggle to shed blocks when training camp begins. Campbell was a top-10 player on the Eagles’ draft board. Still, King needed on-field confirmation when the No. 31 pick started practicing.

“I wanted to see if this guy would use these,” King said, raising his hands. “And he uses those. And he uses them with bad intention sometimes. And that’s what I like to see.”

Campbell’s progress is the team’s most promising development of training camp. The Eagles entered the offseason knowing Nakobe Dean would spend at least the beginning of the 2025 season recovering from patellar tendon surgery. They traded up one spot for Campbell without knowing whether he’d return from labrum surgery when training camp began July 23. But Campbell beat their training staff’s August estimation by practicing immediately and advanced from second-team linebacker to absorbing all of the first-team snaps alongside Baun on the final day of summer practices. That pairing signaled the best-possible outcome for Campbell’s first month in Philly: The rookie will start Week 1.

“He’s gonna be good,” starting safety Reed Blankenship said. “He’s gonna be really good.”

A new era of Eagles defense is advancing under defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. Linebacker was an underfunded and undervalued position inside the NovaCare Complex before Fangio arrived. Baun’s transformation from gadget edge rusher to All-Pro inside linebacker provoked general manager Howie Roseman to alter his investment plan: The Eagles signed Baun to a three-year, $51 million deal, then spent a first-round pick on an off-ball linebacker for the first time since drafting Jerry Robinson in 1979. Roseman also bolstered depth by spending a Day 3 pick on Mondon, a year after drafting Jeremiah Trotter Jr. in the same round.

Jihaad Campbell, left, and Zack Baun are two flexible linebackers, which is a luxury for the Eagles’ defense. (Kyle Ross / Imagn Images)

The “off-ball” designation doesn’t fully capture why the position has more value under Fangio. Campbell, like Baun, supplies the Eagles with yet another flexible linebacker who can line up on the line of scrimmage, enabling the defense to shift fronts. Fangio often placed Baun along the edge in five-man fronts. From there, Baun’s skills made him a run-stopper. Baun also wrecked backfields by blitzing from multiple slots. Having two flexible linebackers is a distinct luxury that is unlocking Fangio’s schematic creativity. King said the Eagles “can be very, very multiple” and “versatile” with their defensive calls. They can “do one thing” for a few games, then “do another thing” for the next few.

“Once we start game-planning (for Week 1) with Dallas, you’ll see it,” King said. “We’re just doing our base stuff right now, but you can get real creative with the grease board pen.”

The Eagles highly value Campbell’s abilities along the defensive edge, but their rhetoric implies they don’t plan on deploying him as an outright edge rusher — at least for now. Jeremiah Washburn, a former NFL scout who coaches the team’s edge rushers, was indeed the one who spoke with Campbell during the pre-draft process. But Washburn attributed his assignment to Roseman’s general desire to evaluate a “multidimensional” player, and, like Washburn’s kids, Campbell attended high school in South Jersey, which Washburn “felt like that was an easy connection point.” Washburn has also worked Campbell through edge-rusher drills in training camp. But Washburn noted he’s done similar work with Baun.

“I mean, I think he can do a lot of things,” Washburn said. “But he’s a young player, and you certainly want to focus on specific things right now.”

Duplicating Baun as a Week 1 starter is a demanding task in itself for a rookie. (Baun will wear the green dot on game days, King said.) That Campbell has already earned that trust from coach Nick Sirianni, Fangio and King shouldn’t go understated. Trotter had a good camp. The 2024 fifth-round pick punctuated his promising summer by picking off Kyle McCord on Wednesday while playing zone coverage along the right seam. Mondon also advanced quicker than the coaching staff expected. He’s made the proverbial dean’s list of BDU with notable run-stopping skills throughout the preseason and proved capable in coverage by dislodging a deep throw to Saquon Barkley midway through camp. “He came in and he really, really flashed — like, wow,” King said. Campbell’s position battle victory is no concession.

“In practice, you see him make plays, you see him be able to defeat blocks,” Sirianni said. “He really has a great motor to get to the football. He has toughness, length and just continues to grow in the defense every day.”

The Eagles are placing a significant amount of responsibility on a young defense for a second straight season. Within a veteran-laden offense, their starting offensive linemen have started in a combined 319 games in their careers. The entire first-team defense the Eagles fielded in Wednesday’s practice has started in a total of 244 career games. (And cornerback Adoree’ Jackson accounts for 82.) Campbell, like cornerback Quinyon Mitchell a year ago in Sao Paulo, will be the rookie starter who must immediately deliver under the bright lights of a prime-time opener.

Like Mitchell had in 2024 with former cornerback Darius Slay, Campbell has an in-game mentor in Baun. The two talk frequently on the practice field and in their meetings.

“I don’t want to be that vet who hides the secret sauce or doesn’t give the secret ingredient,” Baun said. “That’s not who I am. Trying to build up everyone around me. Jihaad, especially, can be so good. I want to get him to playing his best ball as early as he can.”

The rookie appears right on track. King said Campbell has “grown in every area” of his game. Baun said Campbell “really knows ball,” “takes good notes” and “he shows it on the field.” Trotter said Campbell is “instinctual” and “has all the tools that you would want in a linebacker.” Blankenship, who communicates play calls and alignment with Campbell from the secondary, said “most of it all, he’s been right on it. I don’t have to worry about him.” In two Wednesday blitzes, Campbell rushed Jalen Hurts into throws. The first would’ve been a sack in full-contact football.

“(He’s) electrifying,” starting edge rusher Nolan Smith said.

Onlookers won’t witness such sparks in the Eagles’ preseason finale against the New York Jets on Friday. Campbell — who totaled 15 snaps against the Cincinnati Bengals, 28 against the Cleveland Browns — will almost certainly not play. The Eagles signed free-agent linebacker Chance Campbell, who last appeared in a regular-season game for the Tennessee Titans in 2023, Wednesday. Sitting young linebackers in a preseason finale signals yet another luxury. Could the Eagles, after years of low investments at linebacker, a reporter asked King, possibly be stacked at the position?

“Ooh, I wouldn’t say stacked,” King laughed. “Don’t set me up like that. I mean, yeah, we played some decent football last year. We gotta get better this year. Last year’s a distant memory, and we gotta keep building.”

(Top photo: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)

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