Dec 15, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean (17) before action against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

PHILADELPHIA – Howie Roseman was smart not to put Jihaad Campbell in, his words, “a box,” when asked if first-round pick Jihaad Campbell was an off-ball linebacker. It’s because Campbell can also play edge, and he pointed to Penn State and how they used Micah Parsons and Abdul Carter initially.

The Nittany Lions started them out at linebacker then moved them to edge. Campbell was recruited out of IMG Academy in Florida as an edge rusher but moved to linebacker because Dallas Turner and Will Anderson, Jr., were already there, but moved back to more of an edge role this past year.

His best position, though, may be linebacker, but he’s just 21, so there is time to layer his 6-3 frame with more weight and strength and shoot and move somewhere north of hat he weighs now, which is 235 pounds.

As for where he plays, Campbell doesn’t have a preference. He just want to be “a dominant force.”

“Just put me wherever, you know, finding different schemes for me to play and make an impact,” he added on an early Friday morning Zoom call.

Still, before thinking that Campbell is coming in to supplant Nakobe Dean as a starter, think again. Roseman was adamant that this selection of Campbell in anyway change the team’s thinking on Dean or any of their edge rush players.

He answered the question about Dean with an emphatic and quick, “No.”

Then added: “We have a lot of confidence in Nakobe Dean, and this has nothing to do with Nakobe. This had to do with the fact that we had a top-10 talent on our board who we love the player and we love the versatility. And for us, that was it. That was really it. It wasn’t about – we start drafting for need or we start turning down top-10 players when we’re picking in the thirties, it’s not going to be good for our football team.”

Campbell may start next to Zack Baun in the fall, depending on how Dean’s rehab from a torn patellar tendon is coming along, but Dean won’t lose his job without a fight. He had a terrific season last year.

Unfortnately, it ended with him on the sideline on crutches. It was the same way his second season ended, too.

Something else to remember is this season will be the final year of Dean’s rookie contract, so the Eagles have a decision to make.

Campbell is a good insurance policy if Dean gets hurt again next year or if the Eagles don’t re-sign him.

If Dean answers the bell from game one on Sept. 4, or a few games later, and stays healthy, Campbell become s hybrid player, one that you know Vic Fangio will figure out how to use to get all him, Dean, and Baun on the field at the same time.

“Vic does a tremendous job with getting guys who have pass rush ability to be versatile players like that,” said Roseman. “I think what’s really fun is that those guys who have that versatility who can go out on the edge and get pressure as a rusher and he’s got speed, he’s got power as an edge rusher, he was trained as an edge rusher. And then, he’s got the versatility to play off the ball and blitz from depth and play in space, in pass coverage, as an off-ball linebacker.”

Sounds like Campbell can do it all. Of course, he has to get healthy, too. He just had surgery to repair his left labrum last month. It’s an issue the Eagles aren’t concerned with, though it is likely the reason Campbell was still undrafted so late in the first round.

“I’m just taking it day-by-day with the shoulder process,” he said, “just making sure, like I said earlier, I’m just maximizing every day that I can get better and heal up.”

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