The Draft Night That Broke The Internet
I remember it like it was yesterday. The Detroit Lions were catching nonstop flak for their first-round picks in the 2023 NFL Draft. A running back was one thing, but how dare they pick an off-ball linebacker with the 18th pick?
On Wednesday, that off-ball linebacker took to the podium after signing a four-year $81 million extension and talked about how he still has a draft grade article that gave him an F and talked about how he was the worst pick in the first round.
“When I got drafted on draft night, I remember everything. I remember a lot of things that were said,” Campbell said. “A guy from my hometown mailed me a letter. I still have it today, just the CBS Sports article, just talking about how, like, this is probably the worst pick in the NFL history.”
The Receipts Are Damning
Now, we looked everywhere for that CBS article, and we just couldn’t find it. But what we’ll do instead is look at some of the other grades from that night.
Danny Kelly of The Ringer gave the pick a D, calling Campbell his “73rd-ranked player” and warning that Detroit’s decision to draft “two non-premium positions with their two first-round picks could come back to haunt them.”
Chet Gresham of DraftKings went with a D-minus. He wrote: “I don’t like giving out F’s because I surely can’t see the future, but man, the Lions are making some weird picks. His upside in the NFL is about non-existent.”
Charles McDonald of Yahoo Sports gave the entire draft haul an F and called Campbell “really odd selection at the 18th pick, even stranger than the Gibbs pick at 12th overall.”
Nate Davis from USA Today also went with an F, saying “The Lions could have had Campbell potentially two rounds later than this. Pretty crazy.”
Brad Holmes Stays Winning
Here’s the thing about those grades. They all sound so confident, so certain that Holmes had screwed this up. Campbell was a reach. He wasn’t athletic enough. He couldn’t cover. He was everything wrong with old-school linebacker evaluation.
Except Brad Holmes wasn’t drafting for the mock draft industrial complex. He was drafting a culture carrier who could diagnose plays before they happened and tackle like his life depended on it. He was drafting a leader.
The guy just made the Pro Bowl and got paid like a top-five linebacker in the league. His extension is a clear signal that this front office knows exactly what they have.
And yes, I know what you’re thinking. This is the same franchise that once drafted Joey Harrington and Charles Rogers in consecutive years. But this isn’t that front office. Holmes has earned the right to be judged differently.
Campbell kept those receipts for a reason. Every D-minus grade, every “worst pick” headline, every expert who was so sure he knew better than the guys actually building the roster. Sometimes the best motivation comes from people who doubt you.
Sometimes it pays to bet on character over combine numbers. Sometimes the guy everyone calls a reach ends up being exactly what you needed.
Who had the worst draft take about Jack Campbell? Drop your favorite receipt in the comments below and let’s revisit some more expert analysis.
