Lions' Jack Campbell happier proving believers right, more than draft-day critics wrong

Allen Park — Amon-Ra St. Brown has seared the name of every wide receiver drafted ahead of him in 2021 into his brain. The Detroit Lions superstar’s ability to rattle off those 16 names became a worn-out exercise for national media who rolled through town to do a feature during St. Brown’s ascent from overlooked fourth-round pick to first-team All-Pro.

Teammate Jack Campbell’s draft experience couldn’t have gone more differently. Campbell didn’t have to sit and wait for two days, seething a little more each time someone else’s name was announced.

On the contrary, Campbell was the first linebacker off the board in 2023. Selected No. 18 in the first round, most analysts mocked the Lions for ignoring the conventional wisdom of positional value.

Few, if any are laughing now. After earning All-Pro honors in 2025, the Lions recently awarded Campbell with a four-year, $81 million contract that makes him one of the highest-paid linebackers in NFL history.

We’ll come back to that. First, let’s return to 2023. Campbell heard the noise, the mocking of where the Lions selected him. Then, a short time after he arrived in Detroit, he got a package that made sure he’d never forget.

A fan from a neighboring town in his home state of Iowa sent Campbell a handwritten note with a book of press clippings. Included was a printout of a post-draft story harshly criticizing his selection.

Campbell said it was a CBS Sports article. Ironically, that publication was one of the few that praised Detroit for taking the Iowa linebacker, giving the move an “A+” grade. A Google search based on Campbell’s description more likely refers to a Yahoo column by Charles McDonald, which also offered up instant grades.

“The Lions could have had Campbell potentially two rounds later than this,” McDonald wrote. “Pretty crazy. Campbell is a quality athlete and may turn out to be a solid starter, but this is a major reach. Grade: F.”

Instant analysis is undeniably a big traffic source out of the draft, but opens the door for these types of swings and misses. No one remembers when writers are level-headed and right, they remember the scorching hot takes that blew up in their face.

Lions fans will never let Mel Kiper Jr. down for declaring he’d see us at former receiver Mike Williams Hall of Fame induction, or a half-dozen other goofy opinions over the years.

Was McDonald’s words motivation for Campbell? Sure. How could they not be, to some degree? Regardless, the Lions linebacker said proving people wrong always took a backseat to proving the people who believed in him right.

Like a ball carrier attempting to squeeze through his assigned gap, Campbell tackled that goal with conviction. Tackling is kind of his specialty. He racked up 173 stops last season. And now he’s been rewarded for that production with one of the most lucrative extensions ever given to a linebacker.

But the wild thing is Campbell could have gotten more. After the Lions declined his fifth-year option, a bloated figure because of some edge rushers the NFL has classified as linebackers (see: Parsons, Micah), Campbell and his representation could have played hard ball. They could have followed the path of former Iowa teammate Tyler Linderbaum, who parlayed having his fifth-year option declined by Baltimore into the largest free-agent contract ever awarded to a center, by a wide margin.

Campbell, who happily calls Linderbaum a friend, is happy for his former teammate’s success. But that’s not the path Campbell wanted to take. Sure, he wanted to be paid like a top-tier linebacker, but earning the distinction of highest-paid was far less important than remaining in Detroit, a city that’s embraced him and he’s quickly grown to love because its identity overlaps with his own.

“I kind of came in with the goal of I’d be a Lion, no matter what,” Campbell said. “Let’s be realistic here, I already have more than enough. So, for me, it was more about the principle of I just want to be in the elite category because I feel like I’m an elite linebacker.

“That’s the way (general manager) Brad (Holmes) saw it, and that’s the way everyone upstairs saw it. I feel like, for me, I don’t need to be the highest-paid, even though the guys around the league would probably appreciate that because it bumps up everything else, so I’m sorry to them. But I just feel like, for me, I knew what I wanted in this. I want to help the team in any way possible, just to continue to keep the core together. At the end of the day, I feel like it was fair for the team, and I’m more than happy with everything that they’ve blessed me with.”

A lot of players who play for a Detroit team offer hollow respect for the city’s blue-collar identity. Campbell truly embodies it. He grew up in it and carries it forward as an NFL player. He’s never missed a game, going as far as to stay in a contest where his teammate’s cleat pierced through his face last season.

Predictably, Campbell was at the Lions facility, working out, when he learned the parameters of his extension were in place. And when he promises nothing will be different, despite this fresh influx of millions, it’s easy to believe him.

“Honestly, people think that it's going to change (everything), like you wake up and you have everything you ever dreamt of,” Campbell said. “But I can tell you this much: I woke up and I still had the same problems. I'm still Jack Campbell. So, for me, it's just added fuel to my fire.”

Campbell’s biggest problem? He doesn’t have a Super Bowl ring. And he wants one, badly. Something that fires him up, far more than any article criticizing him coming out of the draft, is he feels his teammates share those team-oriented ambitions.