Detroit Lions select Jack Campbell in first round of 2023 NFL Draft

The Detroit Lions have elected to select Iowa linebacker Jack Campbell with the No. 18 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. It is their second first round pick after Jahmyr Gibbs.

Campbell is the 2022 Butkus Award winner and William V. Campbell Trophy after concluding a memorable and historic four years with the Hawkeyes.

After playing in 16 games over his first two seasons in Iowa City, Campbell emerged as a superstar in the middle of the field for Iowa in 2021. He was named first-team All-Big Ten with 140 tackles during the season.

Campbell followed that up with a senior year for the ages. In addition to winning those national awards, Campbell had 125 tackles and was named a unanimous All-American, Nagurski–Woodson Defensive Player of the Year as the Big Ten’s top defender and the Butkus–Fitzgerald Linebacker of the Year as the Big Ten’s top linebacker.

The 2021 Butkus Award winner, Nakobe Dean, was drafted in the third round with the No. 83 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, the winner in 2020, was selected in the second round. The previous three winners before Owusu-Koramoah — Isaiah Simmons, Devin White and Roquan Smith — were all selected within the first 10 picks of the NFL Draft.

He attended the Cedar Falls (Iowa) High, where he was the No. 724 overall recruit and No. 90 linebacker in the 2019 On3 Industry Ranking. The On3 Industry is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four major recruiting media services. The On3 Industry Ranking is the most advanced, complete and unbiased rating and ranking measurement in the industry. 

What NFL draft analysts are saying about Jack Campbell

NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein believes Campbell can be a productive NFL player but there are some question marks that ding him down in the rankings from what you might expect from a previous Butkus Award-winner.

“Inside linebacker who is built for the box and plays with good overall physicality,” Zierlein wrote in his report on Campbell. “Campbell’s size allows him to challenge blocks and stand his ground despite inconsistent hand usage at the take-on point. He scrapes and plugs his run fits with workmanlike dependability but lacks the short-area burst and reactive athleticism teams typically look for from NFL starters. He plays with above-average field awareness. He’s capable as a zone defender and in some matchups against in-line tight ends. What you see is what you get with Campbell, and teams will need to balance the consistency with the playmaking limitations in their evaluations.”