{"id":670108,"date":"2026-05-28T12:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T12:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/670108\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T12:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T12:57:08","slug":"jack-campbell-i-didnt-need-to-be-highest-paid-lb-i-wanted-to-remain-a-lion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/670108\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Campbell: I didn’t need to be highest-paid LB, I wanted to remain a Lion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lions didn\u2019t exercise their option on linebacker Jack Campbell\u2019s contract for the 2027 season, but they said the move didn\u2019t change their desire to keep Campbell in Detroit for the long term. <\/p>\n

Words met action last week when Campbell signed a four-year, $81 million extension with the team. That deal reflects Campbell\u2019s value to the Lions and it fit with Campbell\u2019s desire to be a member of the team \u201cno matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be realistic here<\/a>, like, I already have more than enough. So, for me, it was more about the principle of I just want to be in the elite category, because I feel like I\u2019m an elite linebacker and that\u2019s the way [Lions GM] Brad [Holmes] saw it and that\u2019s the way everyone upstairs saw it . . . I feel like, for me, I don\u2019t need to be the highest paid,\u201d Campbell said, via Eric Woodyard of ESPN.com. \u201cEven though the guys around the league would probably appreciate that because it bumps up everything. So, I\u2019m sorry to them. But I just feel like for me, I knew what I wanted in this. I want to help the team in any way possible. Just to continue to keep the core together so, I mean, at the end of the day, I feel like it was fair for the team and I\u2019m more than happy with everything that they blessed me with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell isn\u2019t the highest-paid linebacker in the league, but there\u2019s not much of a gap between him and 49ers star Fred Warner. Warner\u2019s deal averages $21 million per year, which is just ahead of where Campbell now ranks in the pecking order. It seems unlikely that anyone is going to be too upset about how those things stack up, so the deal feels like a winner across the board. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lions didn\u2019t exercise their option on linebacker Jack Campbell\u2019s contract for the 2027 season, but they said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-670108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}