The Caleb Campbell conundrum

By Os Davis  |   Thursday, June 19, 2008  |  Comments( 17 )

Detroit Lions
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Only in the realm of the Detroit Lions could a win-win situation become a lose-lose months before the season’s first snap. To wit, the continuing controversy over 2008 draft pick Caleb Campbell.

Arguably the highlight of draft Sunday in April, the selection of Campbell at No. 211 overall by the Lions had the Radio City audience crying out “USA! USA!” and “Ca-LEB Camp-BELL.” That was easily the most raucous the crowd has ever gotten in the seventh round (excepting possibly the reaction to another crushingly incompetent New York Jets selection); in our strange love-the-country hate-the-foreign-policy times, the theretofore unknown out of Army instantly became the most well-loved service-academy grad since Roger Staubach.

It was a killer coup for beleaguered Lions GM Matt Millen -- or so we thought. Risking little with a seventh-round selection, head coach and former US Marine Rod “Damn It” Marinelli had another quick defender to add to his ever-increasing collection. Even if Campbell wasn’t to make the cut, Detroit scored a swell short-term PR victory in rallying all those patriots (no, not the New England sort) out there while temporarily awakening younger fans to the fact that Michigan actually has a NFL team.

That old Lions (black) magic would soon be working, however, and public opinion turned against Campbell. Column inches after column inches were devoted to any number of red, white and blue reasons why Campbell should forgo the chance to earn at least $285,000 and fulfill his dreams of playing NFL ball for the opportunity to collect lots of shrapnel in his gluteus maximus defending the interests of a reviled outgoing president in a secret war based on false premises.

Far from over, this controversy surrounding Campbell continues with a Navy decision regarding recent grad and St. Louis baseball Cardinals draft choice Mitch Harris. While Campbell (as well as undrafted free agents Miki Viti prospectively of the Buffalo Bills and would-be New York Giant Owen Tolson) was given leave to play in the NFL should he make the team, secretary of the navy Donald Winter announced to media that “At this point in time, the nation being at war takes precedence” and that Harris would have to give five years to his country.

That decision caused mainstream writers like Daily Press columnist David Teel, who, with all the bravery induced by sitting comfortably at home in Virginia, laments the lack of shared sacrifice for the Iraq police action while simultaneously admitting that he’s not about to do anything either, cries “hear, hear” and paints Campbell as a bad guy.

So three months before the season, the positive PR coup has been overthrown and the reality is that the Lions may well be forced to keep Campbell on the roster regardless of offseason performance; and while the buzz on Campbell has been decent in camp thus far, warning flags about Campbell and another subpar talent for the subpar Detroit defense in general have to be raised.

Having played strong safety at Army, Campbell nevertheless reckoned he’d be playing at OLB for Detroit should he make the team this year. Sure enough, Detroit Lions Football Inc. made it official this week, having “switched the position designation of rookie Caleb Campbell from safety to linebacker.”

The decision represents yet another move by Marinelli in his over-arching obsession for speed, more speed, velocity, quickness and, oh yeah, more speed. (Um, how about size and smarts, Rod? Your guys were dead last in 2007 in points allowed, yardage allowed and first downs allowed; empirical evidence alone suggests that much of this breakdown was thanks to broken tackles and too-loose secondary play in the Cover 2.)

On the pro-Lions side, the move of Campbell to linebacker seemingly makes sense because of his reputation as a run-stuffer, the commonly cited “logjam” at safety (though DetroitLions.com lists only five potential safeties, highlighted by Daniel “Never Mind the” Bullocks, Dwight Smith and little more), and his knowledge of zone defenses.

From outside the forced optimism of Motor City Kitty backers, however, this looks like a desperate attempt to give Campbell every opportunity to make the team. At just 6-foot-2 and 229 pounds (this latter stat is according to the team’s official Web site; the US Army listed him at 223, the combine had him at 220, and his appearance during the draft made it appear as though that was a generous 220) while new to the position, one has trouble imagining Campbell handling the league’s top blocking TEs and offensive linemen. Heck, he reportedly had problems with Gosder Cherilus already in minicamp.

Today, common wisdom – and this term should be used loosely in association with Detroit football – has Campbell doing time mostly on special teams. He’s got to be considered a favorite to make the final roster, if only because the cap-strapped Lions need another near-minimum wage to balance out past money thrown at bonus babies. If not, Campbell’s oft-reported versatility and good character seems guaranteed to get him a practice squad spot. The medium- and long-term viability of Campbell as NFLer, however, appears to be no more likely than that of any other seventh-round draft pick.

And here’s how a win-win becomes a lose-lose. Suddenly do the Lions find themselves pigeonholed into backing an uphill cause despite continuing bad publicity spread over seven-plus years’ worth of stunning negativity: Gee, that’s kinda like this whole ridiculous Iraq mission ...

P.S.

Impeach Millen.

Storming the virtual beach of Normandy throughout the year at RealFootball365.com
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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