Jack Campbell is done climbing quietly. ESPN’s annual survey of more than 70 league executives, coaches and scouts, published Tuesday, ranked the Lions linebacker the No. 5 off-ball linebacker in football — his first appearance in the top 10 after settling for honorable mention a year ago. Only Fred Warner, Roquan Smith, Carson Schwesinger and Zack Baun ranked ahead of him.
The production drove the jump. Campbell piled up 176 tackles in 2025, the most by a Lions player since Chris Spielman in 1994, and his 40% run stop win rate ranked fifth among off-ball linebackers. At 6-foot-4 and 256 pounds, the 2023 first-round pick has grown into the frame that drew Brian Urlacher comparisons when Detroit took him 18th overall — a pick plenty of draft analysts called a reach at the time.
The scouting report that accompanied the ranking is the kind Detroit has built its whole roster around. “Excellent football IQ, tough, physical, plays downhill, instinctive, aware, leader — throwback football player,” a veteran AFC assistant coach told ESPN. The voting also showed the league hasn’t fully settled on him: at least one voter ranked Campbell the best linebacker in football, while others left him off the ballot entirely.
The recognition is stacking up this month. Campbell made the player-voted NFL Top 100 for the first time at No. 88 last week, and the four-year, $81 million extension he signed in May already told you what the front office thinks.
What changes in 2026 is the job description. With Alex Anzalone now in Tampa Bay, Campbell runs Detroit’s defense without the veteran who handled much of the communication during his first three seasons — the Detroit News this week described him as the unit’s anchor, no longer the little brother in the linebacker room. A top-five ranking says evaluators believe the player is ready. The season will test whether the leader is too. Lions rookies report July 25, veterans July 28, with open training camp practices beginning in early August.
