Jihaad Campbell – LB – 21 years old – Junior – Alabama
Size: 190 cm
Weight: 106 kg
Stats 2024: 117 tackles including 11.5 for loss and 5 sacks, 2 fumble forced, 3 defended passes including 1 interception
Estimated position in the draft: Top 16
Comparison: Bobby Wagner (LB)
It's been a long time, perhaps since Reuben Foster, that football fans had not seen a linebacker as dominant as Jihaad Campbell. Certainly the position is no longer appreciated at its fair value but by itself, the Crimson Tide player moves the lines.
The player has such immense potential that he won in the prestigious defense of Alabama has a position he did not know. Indeed, Jihaad Campbell was an Edge in high school, so dominant that he received his five stars in this position. Now that he is fixed on the second curtain, he has something to become the best … in NFL.
Strengths of Jihaad Campbell:
- Athletic profile
- Tackle
- Readings
[#CypScout]🏈 – Jihaad Campbell, LB, #11, Alabama
The best LB offball that I scout. (+ can pass rush)
1⃣ & 3⃣: Blitzer, Speed and Acceleration
2⃣ SIDELINE-SIDELINE speed
4⃣ run support, tackle, clean-up
5⃣ QB reading, zone cover, reaction
6⃣ Ball skills in cover pic.twitter.com/ucw3wm8gjq– CYP (@SprintereMerite) November 21, 2024
Jihaad Campbell is such Captain America, a refined super soldier in the laboratory and ready to go to war. Its mixture, size, weight, power, speed, explosiveness is unequaled in the class and will be very hard to match even in NFL. It is therefore an already very rare physical commodity that the teams will tear out. Because these advantages, it is put in tune to defend by covering large areas on the width or by accelerating in small spaces to kill opposing games.
The linebacker is also an extremely reliable player in tackle. In a career he revolves around a famelic 7 % of missed tackles. Players at his post are often in situations of a conspiracy. Not being a dead weight for your tackle team is therefore a situation of compulsory success.
Finally, Jihaad Campbell has, for a “young” player at the post, an already very correct game vision. Against the race he examines the concepts and often plunges into the best intervals to stop attempts. In defense of pass in the zone he sees the spaces to close quickly.
Weak points:
- Ball Skills
- Men's coverage
It is true that Jihaad Campbell does not have the best hands on the set. His hands have long been in the cuddness rather than in the air. Please note, he progressed to catch up with the balloons but the path is still long.
Likewise, there are difficulties in understanding all the ins and outs of duels as a man to man when it comes to defending the pass. He does not yet see all the subtleties of the roads and does not know how to eliminate them. He can also sometimes have riding hands when he does not trust to cover the best recipients/Tight ends.
The real weaknesses of Jihaad Campbell stop there. We can nevertheless have questions about his ability to be a real defense captain with the green point on his helmet. The teams answered this question with the individual interviews.
Possible destinations
Dallas Cowboys, Indianapolis Colts, Arizona Cardinals, Seattle Seahawks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Commanders
Even if Jihaad Campbell is a linebacker and that linebacker are not appreciated in the first round, it presents such a complete and special profile that it will not come out of this first salvo by name.
A choice in the top 10 seems presumptuous, except after an exchange of a player's love team. Nevertheless, spending half the draft already seems complicated. Pass the 20the choice is definitely impossible.
The best options seem the Indianapolis colts to replace in the EJ Speed role. Jihaad Campbell would then be a luxury complement to Zaire Franklin (LB), hidden behind the boss he would have time to learn and bring what he can do, before becoming the leader.
And the second credible option is Arizona, with the cardinals. Here Campbell would be de facto the best linebacker is the missing piece of defense and midfielder. There would therefore be more pressure but also more perspective in its performance.
