Lions pick Jack Campbell carries 'old-school, blue-collar' mentality to Detroit
Nolan Bianchi
Allen Park — Jack Campbell is used to the feeling of not being wanted.
While the Detroit Lions’ front office was over the moon to select the Iowa linebacker with the 18th pick in Thursday night’s NFL Draft, that isn’t a feeling that has translated across the fanbase — or critics across the league, for that matter.
None of that has dampened the spirits of a 21-year-old who has just fulfilled his life’s dream. In a way, Campbell, the reigning Butkus Award winner, has been mentally preparing to enter this exact situation since stepping on his college campus.
“Our linebacker room at Iowa, our mentality was just the ‘mutt mentality,’” Campbell said at his introductory press conference Friday in Allen Park. “You know that mutt that all the kids walk past because they want the pure-bred puppies? That’s how I’m gonna carry myself here.”
One has to appreciate the irony of all this, coming from a man who was just selected as a top-20 pick. It’s true: The narrative about Campbell’s worth as a No. 18 pick has been less than favorable. And yes, there are some who feel as though he’ll never be able to justify that selection, just because he butters his bread at an off-ball position.
Despite all of the detractors, Campbell, a 6-foot-5, 249-pound bruiser who led the nation in tackles in 2021, has a legitimate chance to be a foundational piece for Dan Campbell’s defense for years to come, positional value be darned. And hearing him talk Friday, there is no debate that he was meant to be a Detroit Lion — which, some would argue, is the most important piece of this whole equation.
“I feel like I have an old-school, blue-collar mindset, and I feel like maybe that’s what they liked about me, and I feel like the perfect fit for Detroit,” Campbell said. “The people in this city, they work for everything they get, never complain, never point fingers, and that’s just who I feel like I am.
“I feel like I couldn’t (have gone to) a better city that represents that.”
A little bit more about Campbell: He doesn’t care what number he’ll wear as a Lion. “They’ll give me what I’m gonna get,” he said.
He doesn’t use social media — not because he has anything against it; he’s just not really interested. “For me, it’s just like, I don’t know. It’s just who I am. I just enjoy spending time with people and talking to people, not really spending time on my phone,” he said.
Outside of football, he doesn’t have many hobbies: “I like to go to church, hang out with friends and hunt.”
At Iowa, Campbell — who also won the Campbell Award (academic Heisman) in 2022 — studied enterprise leadership. He admitted Friday that that degree probably doesn’t directly translate to his new pro football career, but his explanation revealed the type of person the Lions are getting.
“Someday, I was kind of interested in maybe starting and running my own small business,” Campbell said.
“I’m just passionate about learning new things that directly apply to me and things that I’m passionate about. I would say my degree might not have a direct correlation to football, but I feel like how I approached class and my workload is the same exact as football.
“You show up every single day with a great attitude and great effort. There’s gonna be hard days and there’s gonna be good days. But never riding those valleys and never riding those peaks, just staying steady, and I feel like that’s how I’ve approached school and also football.”
You never know how these things are gonna go. But in Detroit, Jack Campbell should probably get used to the feeling of being wanted.
nbianchi@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @nolanbianchi
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