Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell is in awe of how lean his star linebacker Jack Campbell looks entering his fourth season in the NFL. The Lions coach told Jacob Hester of Sirius XM a story about how shocked he was to see Campbell look so lean.
Campbell noted that he would pull up tape from training camp the season prior to see clips of how things went and how players looked to compare. He could not believe the difference he saw from Campbell since he entered the NFL when it comes to his size.
“So I pull the year before, right, Jack looks like he is ten pounds heavier; I mean he’s massive, he looks like he’s 260, and the year before that he looks like he’s 275; he’s even bigger,” Campbell said with a big grin on his face. “And you look at him now, and he is still a big man, and he can run, but he’s really leaned up; he lost a little bit, but he is still the thumper.”
The key note that Dan Campbell mentioned is that Jack Campbell is still a thumper. He can hit with the same power. However, he is just getting to his spots a lot faster.
Detroit Lions Are Seeing Jack Campbell Leaner in 2026
GettyDetroit Lions LB Jack Campbell.
When Campbell was at the NFL Combine, he weighed 249 pounds, and the NFL lists him at 246 pounds. However, the Lions coach is not talking about pure weight, but rather the mass that he carries.
As Dan Campbell noted, the difference is in how lean he looks. He was coming from college, was still young, and was still carrying some fat around his body. However, he trimmed all of the fat and replaced it with lean muscle. He is much stronger now, but weighs about the same because he replaced the fat with muscle.
This is why the Lions coach is not afraid of his linebacker losing the ability to thump despite looking smaller in mass. Campbell is continuing to grow into his body and is continuing to produce more in the NFL. This could lead to his best year yet in 2026.
Lions Keep Raising the Bar for Campbell
He started 12 games in his rookie year, and combined for 95 tackles. He also added two sacks and five tackles for loss. His second year showed legitimate improvement. Campbell recorded 131 combined tackles.
He had five tackles for loss, but just 1.5 sacks. Still, he added five passes defensed. That did not touch his 2025 season. Campbell hit 176 total tackles. He added nine tackles for loss, five sacks, and three forced fumbles. All of those marks were career-highs. It led to him being named first-team All-Pro. He also signed a massive extension with the team, locking him into the middle linebacker role moving forward.
Now, the only question is what he can do from here. Dan Campbell said that they are going to put even more on his plate this year, and they plan to see big things from Jack Campbell in 2026.
Like HEAVY’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Dan Campbell Reveals Eye-Opening Change in Lions All-Pro appeared first on HEAVY.