The fan base waited all night for a selection, and the Eagles did what many thought, they made a trade. But they did not trade back as most thought, they moved up! The Eagles traded pick 32 and 164 to the Chiefs for pick 31. With the 31st pick in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, the Philadelphia Eagles select… Jihaad Campbell, LB, Alabama.
In a year that did not have a lot of sure things, they selected one who was. Jihaad Campbell is a prototypical linebacker at 6′ 3”, 244, and flourished last year with 117 tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss, and 5 sacks.
Campbell was originally recruited as an Edge Rusher and was moved to linebacker. He has the traits and skills to attack the QB, blitz off the edge, and drop into coverage. He is a younger clone of the All-Pro version of Zack Baun we all saw last year.
This pick screams with the influence that Vic Fangio has in the war room. He oozes with the traits that the Eagles’ Defensive Coordinator loves. Jihaad is a fluid, agile, twitchy player with an impressive burst. His acceleration to attack ball carriers is rare, and he lays the wood when he hits his target!
He will need to improve and maintain lanes, but he has shown elite recognition and awareness and uses his long arms to disrupt passing lanes.. He is the only linebacker I had a first-round grade on, and Fangio will get the most out of him. Just as importantly, he will contribute in the first year.
It is fair to wonder what this means for the future of Nakobe Dean, but it is clear the Eagles valued a player who could contribute on the field in week one.
This has been one of the more difficult drafts to predict in recent memory, as the class includes so many older players due to the COVID-19 exemptions, and the consensus of player evaluations was wildly inconsistent among the experts. The Eagles are coming off a Super Bowl win, and drafting last without many needs also muddled the ability to project what the Birds would do, but what they did was pivot and select an off-ball LB for the first time since 1979.
On a night when everyone expected that the Eagles would address the trenches, Howie Roseman proved again that when everyone is going high, he goes low. He sets the trends, he does not follow them. And the first domino to fall, of the 2025 Philadelphia defense, has been revealed.
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