Eagles Rookie Jihaad Campbell Benched - But Not Because He’s Playing Poorly
In the NFL, players usually get benched for underperforming. That’s just how it goes.
But Jihaad Campbell’s situation in Philadelphia is something different - and frankly, a little unusual. He’s not sitting because he struggled.
He’s sitting because he played too well to stay off the radar, and now the Eagles are shuffling their depth chart to fit everyone in.
Through the first 11 games of the season, Campbell was playing like one of the best young linebackers in the league. According to Pro Football Focus, he ranked 10th among 86 linebackers who had logged at least 200 snaps.
That includes a top-five grade in coverage and a top-10 grade in tackling. For a rookie, that’s elite company.
But once Nakobe Dean returned from a lengthy knee rehab, Campbell’s role started to shrink - fast. Before Dean came back, Campbell was averaging 63 snaps per game, logging about 93% of the Eagles’ defensive plays.
Since then? His snap count has plummeted.
He played just 20 snaps against the Lions, 11 against the Cowboys, and didn’t see the field at all on defense in the loss to the Bears.
That’s not a typo. Zero defensive snaps.
Head coach Vic Fangio has made it clear: Dean isn’t coming off the field, and Zack Baun has locked down his role as well. That leaves Campbell - one of the Eagles’ most productive defenders early in the season - on the outside looking in.
On Friday, he became the first healthy Eagles rookie first-round pick to record zero defensive snaps in a game since Andre Dillard in 2019, and the first on defense since Marcus Smith in 2014. But this isn’t about Campbell underperforming. It’s about the coaching staff’s commitment to Dean and Baun - and the numbers game that comes with a crowded linebacker room.
Still, if you’re expecting Campbell to sulk or sound off about the situation, you don’t know Jihaad Campbell.
“This is not no basketball team, where I'm looking to score 40 points, and then if I don't score the next 40 points, I'm going to be pissed off,” Campbell said at his locker on Friday. “It's all about wanting joy for yourself, of course, and wanting joy for everybody else that's around you.
I love watching our guys play. I love watching myself play on tape.
That's the best part about it.”
That’s a mature response from a 22-year-old rookie who had 53 tackles, an interception, two pass breakups, a tackle for loss, and a quarterback hit in his first 11 games. He looked like a rising star - and still does - but his role has been reduced to a spectator on defense.
Fangio tried to get creative earlier in the year, giving Campbell some snaps off the edge. But with Jaelan Phillips and Brandon Graham in the mix, and Nolan Smith returning from a five-game absence, even those opportunities have dried up.
So Campbell has pivoted to special teams. He played only four special teams snaps while Dean was out, but over the last four games, he’s logged 18. That might not seem like much, but for a player who hadn’t played on special teams since his sophomore year at Alabama, it’s a shift - and one he’s embracing.
“It's fun,” Campbell said. “I feel like people don't really value special teams, but you see all these people out here, they work hard.
All the special teams guys, we all work hard to be on teams. We value that as another third thing that matters in the game.
Of course, offense and defense matter, but then special teams change the games, too.”
That’s the kind of attitude that keeps a player ready when his number’s called again - and it might be soon. The Eagles played 85 defensive snaps in Friday’s game, the most they’ve had in a non-overtime contest since 2016. Afterward, Fangio admitted he probably should’ve found a way to get Campbell on the field.
“Probably should have gotten him in there for a few,” Fangio said. “That’d be my fault there.”
Even if Campbell gets back into the defensive rotation over the final five regular-season games, it’s unlikely he’ll see the same volume of snaps he did earlier in the year - not unless there’s an injury or a major shift in the depth chart. But he’s not letting that derail his focus.
“I feel like everybody got opportunities and the door opens for them,” Campbell said. “And I think the biggest thing is just having to be ready.”
That’s the mindset of a player who knows his time will come again - and when it does, he plans to be ready.
“I'm not really worried about that,” he added. “I'm worried about how can I get better in individual periods?
How can I get better in team periods? How can I get better by my coach coaching me or by other players helping me out and just learning and growing.
“It’s all about whenever the opportunity presents itself, you know that you're prepared enough to the point where you're going to play up to that standard and the expectations.”
For now, Jihaad Campbell is waiting in the wings. But make no mistake - he’s still very much part of the Eagles’ future.