Calais Campbell, 40, Is On A Pitch Count With The Ravens, But Expect That To Spike Sunday

Calais Campell managed to play all 17 games in Arizona last season at age 39, a phenomenal accomplishment.

He was remarkably efficient against the run and the pass and remarkably consistent in what he offered from week to week, never playing less than 20 reps on defense a game and never playing more than 37. Campbell and his close friend Anthony Weaver, the Ravens defensive coordinator, have a similar pattern in mind for this season and similar end goal of around 400 snaps penciled in, but how they get there could be where things get interesting.

The Ravens are quite likely to be without All Pro defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike for the season opener and perhaps a few more weeks beyond that. They have run stuffers but are short on potential pocket-pushers, and, well, wouldn’t you know it, Campbell played 33 snaps of defense in the opener a year ago and peaked with the 37 midseason.

I’d strongly suggest he surpasses that total Sunday.

Rookie head coach Jesse Minter is running an NFL sideline for the first time Sunday in Indianapolis, he is facing an offense that shredded his Chargers defense last October for 400 yards and 38 points, and his unit will be heavily compromised without an impact interior defensive lineman like Madubuike. And while Travis Jones is fine I suspect Minter spent the weekend churning over defensive fronts that include both Jones and Campbell on the field quite a bit.

There isn’t much of a way around it. Yes, there is a pitch count involved and long-view in place, but I doubt Campbell isn’t up for 40-some snaps if need be this weekend.

“I work really hard,” Campbell said last month. “I feel really good about where I am at. Practices have been going well … I really like where I am at right now. The coaches did a really good job of letting me kind of ease in and really kind of get myself where I need to be. But, I feel really good [about] where I am at. September cannot come soon enough."

Campbell, who has been dealing with the horror of his brother being charged in the death of his mother, played 144 snaps on special teams last year, averaging just under nine a game, which I would anticipate gets cut down in Baltimore. And especially as important as he stands to be until or unless Madubuike is all the way back, why even risk it save for key spots on the field-goal blocking team?

If Campbell played all season and hit that 400 snap total, that would be an average of 23.5 snaps per game. Given what he did against the Colts last season as part of a bad Cardinals defense – and surely the Ravens are watching that tape – all the more reason to think the ageless wonder might be cut loose a little in the opener.

“I told Coach Weave, I’m training to be able to play 40 plays again and give you a quality 40,” Campbell said this offseason. “And he said, ‘You give me 30 and I’ll be happy.”

Best Game Of The Season

Campbell tore up the Colts offensive line in a loss against them midseason. Campbell set season highs with five pressures and a ridiculous 26.5% pressure rate. He had three QB hits – tied for a season high – and added two hurries and gave Daniel Jones, who carved up Minter’s vaunted defense with the Chargers, all kinds of fits.

The Colts are going to want to run the ball with back Jonathan Taylor and play power football and might try to force Minter out of those light boxes and zone shells. And the Ravens are going to have to be smart about adjusting and anticipating and having run stuffers like Broderick Washington and John Jenkins chip in. But Campbell isn’t going to be too idle for too long we don’t imagine.

He and Weaver, who was still playing in the league when Campbell was a rookie, have clearly been cooking up a plan for this game, with Minter, for quite some time. It’s hard to see Madubuike playing at all, let alone being a factor, given how little he has done thus far still recovering from such a major procedure. After two terrible season, this defense needs to carve out a new identity immediately.

“He is – I've said it countless times – a force multiplier,” Waver said of Campbell this spring. “He's one of those guys that doesn't just make our defensive line better; he makes our defense better. He makes our team better. And anytime you can inject that type of energy and leadership into a locker room, that's a win.

All of that might need to be in heavy supply Sunday to secure a win in Campbell’s first game back with the Ravens since 2022.

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