'It's Electric When He Comes Off The Ball:' Eagles Assistant GM Raves About No. 1 Pick's Rush Skills

PHILADELPHIA - To most draft observers, Eagles first-round pick Jihaad Campbell was the best off-ball linebacker in the 2025 draft class.

Eagles GM Howie Roseman believes Campbell is much more than that, however, intimating that the former Alabama star has similar pass-rushing upside to recent Penn State stars Micah Parsons and Abdul Carter, who were once regarded as only stacked linebackers.

"This is a guy who was recruited from IMG at Alabama as an edge rusher," Roseman reminded observers after pulling the trigger on Campbell at No. 31 overall last week. "Hand in the dirt edge rusher. They had some injuries at Alabama. They played him off the ball.

"You see his explosiveness and his speed, and talked about this a lot. You see Penn State, give them a lot of credit for what they've done. They've had guys off the ball move to edge rushers. Obviously, their last two guys who've been drafted really high [Parsons and Carter], they started off the ball and they moved to edge rushers."

The philosophy from the Eagles' brass is that Campbell is going to be a weapon who has a more layered role than simply a traditional Mike or Will linebacker.

One of Roseman's top lieutenants, assistant GM Alec Halaby, again highlighted the personnel staff's beliefs in Campbell when speaking to the team's official website.

"Man, he's a great player. I love watching him play. He's springy, he's explosive – there are a ton of adjectives you can use to describe him," Halaby said.

Like Roseman, Halaby lauded Campbell's LB work with the Crimson Tide before shifting gears to the potential as a pass rusher.

"When you ask him to rush the passer, it's electric when he comes from off the ball," said Halaby. "He will blow up running backs, he will slither to the quarterback – he has a lot of different ways to get home.

"He can also drop out of the line of scrimmage in an overhang role if you want to create a five-down front either early or late and give teams a different presentation. And he can rush one-on-one against tackles. So, I think he is really good at all the core jobs and he can also do a lot of things that a lot of linebackers can't do. We were fortunate that he was there when we picked."

Orchestrating it all will be veteran defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who has a history of utilizing versatile players.

"Vic does a tremendous job with getting guys who have pass rush ability to be versatile players like that," Roseman said. "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.

"And so, it's the things that you can do and keep all these players on the field. So for us, we always want to improve the front seven and we view him as a front-seven player who's got incredible versatility and a skillset to do both those things. And the appeal is that he's got this rush skillset."

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