Detroit Lions linebacker Jack Campbell may have earned first-team All-Pro honors last season, but he still has some work to do in order to convince the people inside the NFL that he’s the best linebacker in football.
ESPN continued its ongoing positional ranking series—which is compiled via a survey of NFL executives, coaches, and scouts—on Tuesday with linebackers. And while Campbell earned a ton of respect, making the list for the first time in his three-year career, he was only fifth on the list.
The four linebackers ahead of him were Fred Warner, Roquan Smith, Carson Schwesinger, and Zack Baun.
There’s no shame in being behind those players, as three of them also have been named All-Pro—Warner and Smith have a few to their resumé. It is interesting to see Schwesinger ahead of Campbell after just one year, but he did have a tremendous rookie season.
Campbell is, without a doubt, coming off his best professional season. Not only did he earn All-Pro honors, but he finished second in PFF grade among linebackers (90.2) and set career highs in tackles (176), sacks (5.0), forced fumbles (three), fumble recoveries (two), and tackles for loss (nine). As a result, the Lions handed him a four-year, $81 million extension, putting him among the highest-paid linebackers in football.
“Excellent football IQ, tough, physical, plays downhill, instinctive, aware, leader — throwback football player,” one veteran AFC assistant coach told ESPN.
Apparently, there are some wide-ranging opinions on Campbell. At least one pollster had him as the best linebacker in football, making him just one of the three top-10 linebackers to receive first-place votes. But at the same time, there was at least one ballot that had him out of the top 10 entirely. Earlier this offseason, Campbell was named by his peers as the 88th best player in football.
Campbell will carry a lot of weight for the team in 2026. With Alex Anzalone now gone from the linebacker room, plus a lot of questions and moving pieces in the secondary, Campbell will have to take his game to yet another level this season, and that could mean climbing even higher on this list in 2027.
Campbell is now the sixth Lions player to be ranked in the top-10 at their position by NFL employees. You can catch up on the other Lions players who made the lists below:
- Top 10 running backs: Jahmyr Gibbs
- Top 10 edge defenders: Aidan Hutchinson
- Top 10 tight ends: Sam LaPorta
- Top 10 offensive tackles: Penei Sewell
- Top 10 quarterbacks: Jared Goff
Wide receivers and safeties are still to come, so expect to hear a few more Lions players earn top-10 honors.
