Somehow, someway, Eagles Executive Vice President/General Manager Howie Roseman always finds a way to get his guy. After trading(No. 32 pick and a fifth round pick) with the Kansas City Chiefs to move up a spot, the Eagles selected former Alabama LB Jihaad Campbell with the 31st pick in the NFL Draft on Thursday night.
The Eagles reportedly tried to move up multiple times to get Campbell, who grew up is South Jersey, but fortunately, they did not have to do much to get their guy.
“We made a small trade up just to ensure that we could get him,” Roseman said. “There were a lot of trades in the twenties, and so we just wanted to make sure that someone didn’t jump ahead of us. Excited to have him. Really excited to have him. Wasn’t really something we anticipated. Understand some of the other teams may have reasons for taking other players, but for us, this is a really easy pick. He’s a really explosive player. He can play inside. He can be an edge rusher. I just really feel fortunate to bring him home back to Philly.”
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni gave his thoughts on Campbell.
“Yeah, we think he’s a versatile player who can do a lot of different things,” Sirianni said. “So obviously, the main thing that you see is the energy that he plays with, the speed that he plays with, and relentless effort that he plays with, and that fits on defense.”
The 6-3 235-pound LB recently had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder, and some believe that is why he dropped to the Eagles, but Roseman is confident that Campbell will be fine.
When we do our medical meetings, we share medical grades with other teams,” Roseman said. “Obviously, they all go to the combine. So I don’t want it to be like we’re the only team that was confident with him medically. I’m not going to go into the medical stuff. I don’t do that with any of our players. I would say for us, we look at this as long-term investment and we think this guy’s going to be playing a long time for the Philadelphia Eagles.”
Some believe the 21-year-old could be insurance for LB Nakobe Dean, who will miss a portion of the season due to a patellar tendon injury, but Roseman says that’s not the case.
“No, we have a lot of confidence in Nakobe Dean, and this has nothing to do with Nakobe,” he said. “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 could be a steal for the world-champion Eagles, and they got a player with top-15 talent, so on the surface, the rich got richer.
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