Jack Campbell is one of the best linebackers in football. The Detroit Lions paid him accordingly.
This doesn’t make them naive. It makes them smart. And if Campbell declines or suddenly can’t diagnose NFL offenses, it won’t be because the Lions fell in love with their own draft pick and somehow missed warning signs.
It’ll be because Campbell did what almost no young, first-team all-pro level does without getting hurt: gets worse.
If he does get hurt?
That’s just bad luck, and a reminder of the risks of this game. Besides, free agents get hurt; players who arrive in a trade get hurt. Injuries often determine the outcome of a season, as Lions fans well know.
Lions fans should also know this: Campbell can play, and the Lions just made sure he will play in a Lions jersey for the next four years by signing him to a four-year, $81 million extension, a sensible number.
They didn’t break the bank. They didn’t reset the market. They didn’t go crazy for a position that isn’t crucial.
See: recent Super Bowl winner Philadelphia and recent Super Bowl attendee San Francisco. Both of those teams had difference makers in the middle of their defenses … leading those defenses.
No, not every Super Bowl team needs an all-pro off-ball linebacker. But having an all-pro off-ball linebacker isn’t a Super Bowl negater either.
The same could be said for most positions on an NFL football field, even quarterback – hello, Seattle, home to Sam Darnold, the most recent Super Bowl winning quarterback walking the Earth.
Darnold is a good quarterback, maybe even a very good quarterback. He’s hardly an all-timer.
The Seahawks won because they ran the ball, stopped the run, rushed the quarterback, and Darnold made throws when the team needed him to.
That’s a winning formula. It’s not the only one.
What matters more than anything – other than a little luck (Xavier Smith, anyone?) – is a minimal threshold of talented players, above average players, Pro Bowl and all-pro players.
As for Xavier Smith? He caught 27 punts for the Rams last season. He dropped and fumbled one, in the second half of the NFC championship game at Seattle. Actually, he didn’t drop the punt so much as he stumbled before the ball arrived and struggled to regain his balance when the ball hit his hands.
Terrible luck. Seattle took advantage of the very short field and quickly scored. The play, and those points, were the difference in the game, which meant that play was the difference in the season.
So many ways to build
So, yeah, luck.
And yet, it’s not just luck. It’s communication. It’s strategy. It’s talent. It’s skill. All of it matters, clearly.
Other than baseline quarterback play and a relatively high-level pass rush, the positions of the skill and talent can change from season to season, and obviously from era to era. Running backs, for example, aren’t what they used to be … until they are again.
Defensive ends are so often all the rage and a position so many desire, but ultimately, it doesn’t matter where the rush comes from as long as it comes. In fact, Tom Brady used to say that pressure from defensive tackles caused more havoc than pressure from a defensive end.
His last Super Bowl came in Tampa with the help of a dominant defense whose best players were a defensive tackle and a handful of menacing linebackers.
Again, teams don’t need all-pros at that spot to win. But investing in one isn’t going to submarine a team’s Super Bowl chances. Nor is a team investing in the players it drafted.
Title teams need a handful of difference makers on both sides. It helps if a few more of those difference makers are on defense, but it’s not crucial. Nor is it crucial from whence the difference makers came:
Draft, free agency, trade.
What is crucial is that Campbell is a difference maker, and isn’t done getting better. Pro Football Focus ranks him among the top two linebackers in football.
Campbell’s gotten better in each of his first three seasons and is one of the best in the game. He is getting paid like it.
Not because the Lions drafted him and are doubling down on their own evaluation from that draft, but because he’s dominant in his position. That’s there for everyone to see.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions fall in love with their own players. If they’re stars, who cares?
Reporting by Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
