Anthony Campbell has spent Packers training camp turning himself into one of the summer’s most unlikely names to watch.
He didn’t play a single snap as a rookie in the NFL, and the year before that he logged only 47 snaps with one tackle for the Miami Hurricanes in 2024. He doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. None of that has stopped him from making noise in Green Bay.
Campbell has been showing up all over practice, with social media clips and reports painting the same picture: he’s been disruptive, active and hard to miss. He’s knocked down so many passes that he might have looked like the Packers’ best cornerback last season. He’s also drawn notice as a run defender and flashed as a pass rusher.
Anthony Campbell has been literally everywhere this #Packers training camp.
- Kyle Malzhan (@KyleMalzhan) August 10, 2026
The pass-rush work has been especially eye-catching. Pete Dougherty of the Green Bay Press-Gazette reported that Campbell went 4-0 on pass-rush reps during a practice on August 4. Those wins weren’t just against easy targets, either.
"Besides beating (Anthony) Belton twice in that period, he also smoked fifth-round pick Jager Burton right off the snap on another rep, and later manhandled guard Josh Gesky," Dougherty writes.
That kind of summer is enough to get a player into the conversation. The next step is turning practice buzz into preseason proof.
Three chances are coming fast, starting Thursday night in Pittsburgh. If Campbell keeps making plays in those settings, he could force the Packers into a difficult roster call.
The path is not simple. Green Bay’s interior defensive line already has Devonte Wyatt and Javon Hargrave at the top, with third-round rookie Chris McClellan not far behind.
Karl Brooks brings veteran reliability, while Warren Brinson and Nazir Stackhouse are also in the mix. Stackhouse looked like a possible cut candidate at one point, but he has impressed at camp and earned some first-team reps.
That means Campbell may have to do more than just hang around. He may need to push the Packers into carrying an extra interior lineman.
Still, he’s not backing down.
"It's not over yet," Campbell said this week, via Bill Huber of Packers On SI. "It's working but, at the end of the day, I want to look back and I'm saying, 'Damn, I'm strong.'"
The unlikeliest story in camp is still the unlikeliest one. It just doesn’t feel impossible anymore.
Campbell should get plenty of preseason snaps, and he could even see some work against Aaron Rodgers on Thursday night if Rodgers starts, though it’s not clear how long he’d stay in the game. A bat-down, a sack or even a steady stream of pressure would go a long way toward making his case.
The joint practice with the Arizona Cardinals is another major opportunity. Working against another team tends to raise the level of competition, and in some ways it can tell you more than a preseason game.
Campbell has already forced people to notice him at camp. If he can carry that over into the preseason, the Packers may be stuck with a real decision.
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LaFleur and his assistants also highlighted a few bright spots, with rookie cornerback Brandon Cisse and edge defender Lukas Van Ness drawing praise for their play. Even so, Green Bay knows the bigger issue is cleaning up the fundamentals, especially tackling, after limited live opportunities in practice left the team with more questions than answers in a game that was supposed to help settle them. [Read more 🡒]