Eagles Sign First-Round Pick

PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles have signed first-round pick Jihaad Campbell to his rookie contract.

The 31st overall pick out of Alabama gets a four-year fully guaranteed deal for $14,903,574 with a fifth-year team option and a $7.478 signing bonus.

Campbell is currently rehabbing from March labrum surgery and was a spectator for much of the team’s spring work, which wrapped up with Tuesday’s mandatory minicamp.

Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio noted that he expects to have Campbell back to practice sometime in August, while head coach Nick Sirianni left the timetable a little more open-ended.

“We will see. I mean, I don't ever want to put a timetable on anybody,” Sirianni said. “Some guys get through things quicker than others and vice versa. So no timetable on that as far as when he'll be ready. I know he's doing everything he can to get himself ready.”

That includes working off to the side with Fangio and song some light individual work for the first time at Tuesday’s minicamp.

Listed at 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds with great range and explosion, Campbell is projected to work as both a stacked linebacker and pass rusher when he gets healthy, although Fangio noted that there is more to learn at off-ball LB, so Campbell is doing most of his studying with inside linebackers coach Bobby King.

“Making sure that he gets all the mental reps that he possibly can get at this particular time,” Sirianni said. “... He's going to be getting a lot of those opportunities to watch walkthrough, to watch practice and get those mental reps because as a guy who is not in, obviously you're not working the fundamentals of block destruction or tackling or how to take the football away, but what you're trying to make sure is that they have the mental part of the game down. Those are things that he can do in the film room.

“Those are things he can do out in the field when he is watching practice. So that's his mission right now and our goal for him right now.”

As far as what Campbell’s ultimate role looks like the Eagles keep stressing the versatility.

“Looking forward to getting our hands on him and when he is able to start practicing. But he's a good football player,” Sirianni said. “We drafted him because he is a really, really good football player and excited to have him in whatever role that he's going to execute and we know that he's versatile and is able to do multiple things.”

All-Pro Zack Baun was asked about Campbell on Tuesday.

“He's a big dude,” Baun smiled. “Similar to myself, a versatile guy who can do a lot of different things. Just starting to see him move around a little bit and the dude can move. And he's impressively very smart on the board as well so I'm really excited for him."

Without Campbell and the injured Nakobe Dean (patellar tendon), second-year man Jeremiah Trotter Jr. has been getting the first-team reps next to Baun.

Baun was out Tuesday with what he called “general soreness,” and the top LBs were Trotter and rookie fifth-round pick Smael Mondon Jr.

The only Eagles' draft pick who hasn't signed is second-round selection Andrew Mukuba, but that has to do with the dominoes falling earlier in the round.

MORE NFL: To Strike Or Not To Strike: Eagles Aren't Holding Players Back