Would it shock anyone if Jack Campbell and Dan Campbell were distant cousins? The Lions head coach couldn't help but smile Tuesday when asked about the performance of the team's starting middle linebacker in Detroit's 38-30 win over the Ravens.
"Well first of all, did anybody see Jack’s got a laceration on his mouth?" Dan Campbell said.
Only the whole world noticed when Jack Campbell was running around the field on Monday Night Football with a big white bandage above his upper lip after taking a shot to the face midway through the game. He spit out some blood, got patched up and never missed a snap. He finished with a team-high eight tackles and one of the biggest plays of the game, a strip-sack of Lamar Jackson on 4th and goal late in the first half.
"The defense," Dan Campbell grinned, "loved it. He’s at the end of the game trying to call plays and blood’s spitting out everywhere, so they were just eating it up."
In his first season as the full-time green-dot linebacker for the Lions, Jack Campbell is showing exactly why they drafted him 18th overall in 2023. He's becoming the glue to their defense. Monday was one of the best games of his career. He was one of three defensive players for Detroit who never came off the field, along with Alex Anzalone and Brian Branch, and played a critical role in containing Jackson and Derrick Henry.
His length, range and instincts were on full display on the goal-line stop. When Jackson kept the ball on a run-pass option, Jack Campbell tracked him out of the backfield, then exploded into his face as Jackson rolled out and tried to find an open receiver, and knocked the ball out his hands. It looked like Jackson was caught off guard by how quickly the linebacker closed on the play.
"He’s a stud, man," said Dan Campbell. "He’s a workaholic. The knowledge for the game, the way he studies for the game, he prepares for it. He’s playing at a really high level right now, and we feel like the guy can do it all. That’s why he didn’t even come off the field. He can do everything for us. He’s all ball, man. He’s all ball. Whatever you need is what he’s going to do."