Plenty of potential NFL players invited to the combine last week are hoping NFL teams don’t delve too much into their backgrounds, afraid of what might be discovered.
Ibraheim Campbell welcomes the scrutiny.
The more you look into him, he figures, the better his chances of climbing the draft board.
“Get insight into me,” the Philadelphia native and former Northwestern safety said recently in his combine interview in Indianapolis. “Know what I did throughout my career wasn’t a fluke, it was through conscious effort and film study and hard work. Constant, consistent hard work.”
A month ago, Campbell wasn’t much of a household name among the draft junkies, or even the folks in charge of arranging pre-draft events.
He was a late invite to the Senior Bowl, and even after appearing on Mike Mayock’s “made money” list following an impressive week in Mobile, Ala., Campbell was also a late invite to Indianapolis.
But Campbell’s stock is rising as teams become more familiar with his entire body of work and background. After a rough year public relations-wise for the league, teams are finding that Campbell, who graduated with a degree in economics, isn’t just a franchise-friendly prospect for his character and intellect but also for his film-room diligence and potential to be a mid-round steal.
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“As far as concerns, they haven’t really shared any with me ... the interviews have been pretty standard,” Campbell said. “I think they’ve been impressed, or I’ve been meeting expectations at least with all the film work and board work, and just getting to know me as a person a little bit more, is what I’ve been experiencing, mostly.”
At the combine, Campbell measured at 5-foot-11 and 208 pounds — not exactly Chip Kelly-preferred height, but also not shrimpy for the position. He led all safeties with 23 reps in the bench press, second among all defensive backs.
Campbell is the youngest of 11 siblings, eight of which are brothers, who grew up in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood. Three of his older brothers played college football. One of them, Rashad, went to Cornell and provided the blueprint for Ibraheim to mimic.
Rashad inspired Ibraheim to stay in the books and to pursue his athletic goals without losing sight of his educational objectives.
“For me, I felt like almost my entire life leading up to college was following after him, and he set a great example,” Campbell said. “He made my life that much easier. I’m extremely grateful for having him and the rest of my family be so supportive.”
After attending a private academy in Chestnut Hill not known for its athletics and winning the school’s first football conference championship, Campbell landed at Northwestern, another school more known for academics.
There he played right and left safety, a scheme similar to what the Eagles run under coordinator Bill Davis, while also earning his economics degree. At the Senior Bowl, the lesser-known Campbell showed the versatility to play the post, box and also cover the slot.
Campbell has since elevated to Mayock’s top-five safety rankings. He’s considered a Day 2 prospect with sleeper potential.
A smart guy from Philly who’s versatile enough to play three different positions in the secondary and called education “a good byproduct of my football experiences.” You can bet Kelly took notes.
“I see ample opportunity to make plays in the run game, making big hits, forcing fumbles as I do, getting interceptions, breaking up passes,” Campbell said. “I don’t really prefer one over the other.”
He also didn’t prefer one sports team over another until landing in Evanston, Ill., just outside of Chicago and surrounded by Midwesterners.
“I found myself claiming the Eagles more when I got to college,” he said, “kind of to claim where I was from, if that makes sense.”
Campbell will have a new zip code after the draft. He has about two more months to show that he belonged on the NFL radar long ago.
“I don’t think much is expected of me, coming from a school like Northwestern. That’s kind of shown by the fact that I was kind of invited to the Senior Bowl late, by the fact that I kind of got this [combine] invite kind of late,” he said. “Obviously, being injured my senior year (missing four games with a hamstring) didn’t help, but that’s kind of the way I approach it. Whether that’s true or not, that’s how I’m going to approach it. ... I’m setting out to turn heads.”