Ravens DE Calais Campbell is No.79 on the NFL Network’s Top 100 Players of 2020 list
The Baltimore Ravens’ biggest offseason acquisition both from literal and from a potential impact standpoint was the second player on their roster to be revealed on the NFL Network’s Top 100 Players of 2020 list at No.79. Even though he played for the Jacksonville Jaguars last season, since the Ravens acquired him in a swindle of a trade back in early March, he counts towards their league-high seven representatives on this year’s list.
This marks Campbell’s sixth time overall being voted to the list by his peers around the league. In fact, he has now made the list in each of the last six years. Each year he appears on the list the first thing that is always mentioned when he is revealed and talked about is his sheer size.
“When I got out on the field in warm-ups I looked at him and I was like oh my goodness,” said Indianapolis Colts running back Nyheim Hines.
“You talk about defensive ends playing a six-technique and two gaping at times, this dude three gaps,” said free-agent tight and Campbell’s former teammate in Jacksonville, Seth DeValve. “He just spreads his arms out and he accounts for three gaps.”
At 6-8 and 300 pounds, he towers over most offensive linemen and receivers and is one of the largest human beings in the entire league. Despite his height, he still manages to get excellent leverage over his opponents with great pad level and technique to go along with his tremendous length, strength, and athleticism.
“Obviously defensive linemen vary but when you’re that big and that tall, you don’t see people get off the ball the way he does,” added Hines. “I don’t even see some basketball players that tall move that quick.”
“Being that big he can still get under you even being taller than you,” said Jaguars’ offensive tackle Jawaan Taylor. “You think he got him blocked sometimes and he gets you with a counter move.”
Campbell believes that there isn’t anyone in the game that can block him if he is the lower man and gets good hand placement. He moves 300 plus pound offensive linemen around like puppets and ragdolls once he gets his hands in the right spot and low enough to use leverage to his advantage.
The 12-year seasoned veteran heading into his 13th year on his third team in three years enjoys making the splashy plays and racking up sacks just as much as any defensive linemen, however, he also takes pride in doing the grunt work that may not be the sexiest or pads his stats and often goes overlooked but he believes that those contributions are just as impactful to his teammates and overall team success.
“Everybody loves getting the sacks, making the big plays and those plays help win games so they’re very very important, but I try to do a lot of things that go underappreciated,” said Campbell. “I take pride in doing the dirty work [and] making the guys around me better.”
Campbell will have plenty of opportunities to set up teammates for success as well as shine himself in Baltimore as a member of a Ravens defense that finished third in the league in 2019 and is loaded from front to back and in between with playmakers at every level. He will be joined in the trenches by Pro Bowlers Brandon Williams and Matthew Judon, free-agent signee Derek Wolfe and host of young promising edge rushers and defensive linemen that can’t wait to learn from and play with him. His positional versatility in the Ravens Defensive Coordinator Don ‘Wink’ Martindale’s scheme will make their unit even more formidable and diverse this year.
