De’Vondre Campbell

49ers LB Dre Greenlaw Unlikely To Be Ready For Week 1

Dealt a strange blow when Dre Greenlaw suffered an Achilles tear while trotting onto the field during Super Bowl LVIII’s first half, the 49ers attempted multiple insurance measures. The Eric Kendricks plan did not pan out, leading De’Vondre Campbell to San Francisco.

The eight-year veteran will be set to team with Fred Warner in the event Greenlaw’s rehab does not have him ready to play by Week 1. Although Greenlaw underwent surgery shortly after the Super Bowl, the recent LB pursuit would suggest the 49ers are concerned the longtime Warner sidekick will not be ready in time to start the season.

John Lynch said at this week’s owners meetings (via NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco) Greenlaw is aiming to be back on time, but the eighth-year GM indicated this also may lead to a situation in which the reserve/PUP list is needed.

Greenlaw will almost definitely begin training camp on the active/PUP list, but a shift to the reserve/PUP list would sideline him for at least four games. Early October would represent a near-eight-month recovery timetable. While some players have beaten that — including ex-49ers wideout Michael Crabtree back in 2013 — caution would make sense on the 49ers’ part.

Kendricks backed out of a 49ers agreement to sign with the Cowboys. The longtime Vikings linebacker reunited with new Cowboys DC Mike Zimmer, but the 49ers offered him a better deal than the one-year, $3MM ($2.5MM guaranteed) contract he inked with Dallas. Kendricks said the 49ers wanted him to start the season in Greenlaw’s place, a three-down role, before likely moving to a part-time gig once the regular starter came back. Campbell signed a one-year, $5MM contract ($4.56MM guaranteed) soon after Kendricks backtracked.

I didn’t want to be in a situation where I was playing in a position all year and then had to potentially switch to another position — rotating in and out,” Kendricks said on the Bussin’ With Boys podcast (via the San Francisco Chronicle’s Eric Branch). “I wanted to be on the field. I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to make an impact, and that’s why, ultimately, I had to make a change for myself.”

Kendricks joined a team with a greater need for a full-time linebacker, as Greenlaw should be expected to return at some point during the season’s first half. Crabtree went down in late May 2013 and returned in early December. The 49ers could opt to leave Greenlaw off the PUP list and go week to week, but their Kendricks communications suggest a Warner-Campbell setup at linebacker to start the year. Greenlaw is going into his age-27 season. Greenlaw’s two-year, $16.4MM contract expires after the 2024 slate, raising the stakes for the former fifth-round pick to recover and play well this season.

49ers To Sign LB De’Vondre Campbell

11:13am: The 49ers will bring in Campbell, with NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport noting a deal is in place. The sides agreed on a one-year contract. This will be a fourth team for Campbell, who will join Warner as a presumptive starter while Greenlaw recovers.

9:12am: Having an agreement to add a veteran starter as Dre Greenlaw insurance, the 49ers saw their plan come apart when the Cowboys instead lured Eric Kendricks. The defending NFC champions are now looking at another recent cap casualty.

De’Vondre Campbell is on the team’s radar. San Francisco is showing “strong interest” in the recently released Green Bay linebacker, NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco tweets. The Packers cut Campbell two seasons into his five-year, $50MM deal this week.

Kendricks had been tentatively in place to work as insurance while Greenlaw rehabs the Achilles tear he suffered while trotting onto the field early in Super Bowl LVIII. The Cowboys featured a bigger need at the position compared to the 49ers, who should be expected to have Greenlaw back on the field alongside All-Pro Fred Warner at some point next season. Campbell now may be the target for this No. 3 linebacker role.

Oren Burks operated in this capacity last season, playing 433 defensive snaps following Azeez Al-Shaair‘s free agency exit. A former Campbell Packers teammate, Burks is unsigned for the 2024 season. Campbell, 30, played in front of Burks in 2021 — an All-Pro season — en route to signing a new Packers contract. As the Packers transition to a new defensive coordinator, they dropped Campbell’s contract to free up cap space. The former Cardinals and Falcons defender had no guarantees remaining on the deal.

Campbell started 40 games in Green Bay, including 11 last season. After back-to-back years with six tackles for loss and two interceptions apiece, the former Atlanta second-rounder took a step back last year (75 tackles, three for loss) in an injury-shortened season. Campbell, whose Falcons tenure overlapped with Kyle Shanahan‘s in 2016, also played through a shoulder injury in 2022.

Greenlaw underwent surgery shortly after the Super Bowl. While the timeline could allow for the veteran linebacker to be back by Week 1, he will likely begin training camp on the active/PUP list and could be a candidate for a reserve/PUP designation. The latter transaction would sideline Greenlaw for four games to start the season. The 49ers are preparing to take precautions while Greenlaw rehabs; seeing if Campbell would accept the former Al-Shaair part-time role — when Greenlaw is healthy, that is — will be something to monitor.

Packers To Release LB De’Vondre Campbell

Once free agency officially begins, De’Vondre Campbell will see his Packers tenure come to an end. The veteran linebacker will be released on the first day of the new league year, Tom Sliverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

By waiting until the start of the league year, Green Bay will be able to designate Campbell a post-June 1 release. That route will yield just over $10.5MM in savings, a far higher figure than if he were to be let go now. However, the Packers will not see that added cap space until June 2. Moving on from Campbell will produce a dead money charge of $3.66MM.

The 30-year-old had a late breakout during his debut campaign with the Packers. Playing on a one-year deal in 2021, he posted 146 tackles, two interceptions and a pair of sacks en route to receiving first-team All-Pro honors. Campbell was rewarded with a five-year, $50MM deal in 2022. Expectations went through the roof as a result, but the former fourth-rounder saw a downturn in production over the past two seasons. Still, his release will create the need for a new starter at the LB spot this offseason.

Campbell played through a shoulder injury in 2022, and he was limited to 11 games last year. Green Bay will be looking for more stability on the health front with an outside addition or the retention of an in-house replacement candidate. Silverstein notes special teamer Eric Wilson is on the Packers’ list of players the team would like to re-sign. Wilson last saw a heavy defensive workload in 2020 with the Vikings, though, so he will likely retain his third phase responsibilities while Green Bay re-shapes its starting defense under new DC Jeff Haffley.

Kristian Welch (a fellow special teams ace) is a pending free agent like Wilson. As a result, the only sure thing at the LB spot for the time being is 2022 first-rounder Quay Walker. The Georgia alum has started all but one of his games in Green Bay to date, posting at least 118 tackles each season. He will be counted on heavily moving forward, but it will be interesting to see who he will be paired with in 2024. The Packers presently have $13.6MM in cap space, a figure which will grow well after the first few waves of free agency have taken place via Campbell’s release. It will be interesting to see how much of a market develops for him once he becomes available.

Packers LB De’Vondre Campbell Dealt With Shoulder Injury In 2022

The Packers’ low-risk acquisition of inside linebacker De’Vondre Campbell in June 2021 paid huge dividends for player and team, as Campbell turned in a First-Team All-Pro performance that year and parlayed that into a five-year, $50MM deal from Green Bay last March. His first season of that new contract was marred to some degree by a knee injury that cost him four games, and Campbell recently said that he also dealt with a nagging shoulder injury for much of the year (Twitter link).

The former fourth-round pick of the Falcons returned an interception for a touchdown during the Packers’ Week 7 loss to the Commanders, and he says that he was “just hitting my stride” in that contest after playing through the shoulder pain for the first third of the season (pain that he never reported to anyone). Unfortunately, he suffered the knee injury the following week in a contest against the Bills.

Campbell, 30, returned to his full-time role in Week 13, and despite the shoulder and knee ailments, his performance did not suffer much, at least in the eyes of the advanced metrics. Pro Football Focus assigned him a 75.6 overall grade, a mark that included a particularly high 81.0 score in the all-important “coverage” category and positioned him as the NFL’s 15th-best linebacker among 81 qualifiers. In his standout 2021 season, PFF gave him an 85.0 overall grade.

Campbell says he is now completely healthy, and the Packers will need him to continue playing at a high level. Green Bay still has a puncher’s chance of winning a questionable NFC North, or to at least earn a wildcard berth, despite transitioning from Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love at quarterback. If that happens, it will likely be because the club’s defense, a middling unit in 2022, returns to the top-10 form it displayed the year prior. Campbell, who calls the defensive signals, will be central to that effort.

The Packers were of course not going to move on from Campbell this offseason given their financial commitment to him and his importance to the defense. Still, it is notable that the team did not make any draft or FA investments at the ILB position, so it is clear that Green Bay has plenty of faith in Campbell and his running mate, 2022 first-rounder Quay Walker.

Packers To Re-Sign LB De’Vondre Campbell

After keeping the Aaron RodgersDavante Adams tandem, the Packers continue to retain key pieces in free agency. They have agreed to terms with De’Vondre Campbell, Bill Huber of SI.com reports.

Campbell is set to stay in Green Bay on a five-year, $50MM deal. This is quite the pay bump for the 2021 All-Pro, who signed a low-level pact with the Packers midway through last year’s offseason. Campbell’s contract will pay out $16.25MM in Year 1 and total $32.25MM through three years, Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets.

Playing on a one-year deal worth $2MM, Campbell became a vital cog for the Packers’ defense last season. The ex-Falcon draftee reshaped his career with the Packers, making 146 tackles, forcing two fumbles and registering two sacks for the NFC’s top-seeded team. This came after the Cardinals gave him a one-year deal in 2020 but opted not to re-sign him for last season.

This marks a notable deviation for the Packers, who have not traditionally prioritized off-ball linebackers. The team has not invested notable draft capital in the position in over a decade and let tackles machine Blake Martinez walk as a free agent in 2020. Despite Campbell going into his age-29 season, Green Bay made sure to lock him down.

Although the Packers released Za’Darius Smith and Billy Turner on Monday, they remain more than $10MM over the cap. The NFC North powerhouse will need to continue to make moves before the start of the 2022 league year Wednesday.

Minor NFL Transactions: 12/10/21

Here are Friday’s minor moves:

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Kansas City Chiefs

Miami Dolphins

New York Jets

Seattle Seahawks

Washington Football Team

Minor NFL Transactions:  11/30/21

Today’s minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Detroit Lions

  • Waived/Injured: DL Da’Shawn Hand

Green Bay Packers

Los Angeles Chargers

New York Giants

  • Signed (off Bills practice squad): QB Jake Fromm

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

Packers To Sign De’Vondre Campbell

The Packers are set to sign inside linebacker De’Vondre Campbell (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Rob Demovsky). The deal could become official by the end of the business day on Wednesday, if everything checks out with his physical. 

Green Bay has been on the lookout for ILB support ever since moving on from Christian Kirksey. Campbell, who previously started for the Falcons and Cardinals, overlapped with Packers head coach Matt LaFleur in Atlanta. They’ll reunite in Wisconsin as Campbell tests his veteran experience against Krys Barnes, Kamal Martin, and Ty Summers.

The Packers were also connected to Campbell last offseason, but they chose to sign Kirksey instead. This time around, they held off on signing Campbell until after the May deadline, so this pickup won’t impact their compensatory pick calculation for 2022.

Campbell first entered the league a fourth-round pick in 2016, the year he played for LaFleur. All in all, he’s appeared in 75 career games, including 70 starts. He was also first-string for all 16 games of his games last year with the Cardinals. Campbell’s best work arguably came in 2019, when he notched 129 stops for the Falcons.

Terms of the deal are not yet known, but Campbell likely signed for less than last year’s one-year, $6MM pact with Arizona.

NFC West Notes: Cardinals, Seahawks, 49ers

The Cardinals used their first-round pick on Clemson’s Isaiah Simmons, widely regarded as one of the more versatile draft prospects in recent memory. Arizona defensive coordinator Vance Joseph told the media Tuesday that Simmons would primarily be a linebacker in the NFL, but that overall he’d be a “problem-solver” for the defense, via Darren Urban of the team’s official site.

Urban notes that Joseph said while he might not be able to do all the things he did in college, he still wants “Isaiah to be Isaiah.” Simmons played safety, corner, and linebacker at Clemson. “”If it’s a job that we think he can do, we will put him out there,” Joseph said. That echoes what Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury has said since the draft, and it sounds like the team still isn’t sure exactly how they’re going to use him.

  • Speaking of Cardinals linebackers, they also signed De’Vondre Campbell to a one-year deal worth up to $8.5MM this offseason. In his comments to the media Joseph revealed that Campbell was the team’s top free agent target, but they initially didn’t think they would be able to get him because of his price. Eventually, Campbell lowered what he was asking for in exchange for a one-year deal. A 2016 fourth-round pick, Campbell spent the past four years as a starter with the Falcons. Along with Simmons, Arizona is counting on him to help revamp one of the league’s worst units.
  • The Seahawks did some shuffling on their offensive line the past couple days, releasing veteran interior linemen D.J. Fluker and Justin Britt. Turns out, Britt was released with a failed physical designation, Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle tweets. It’s not shocking considering Britt’s 2019 season ended back in October with a torn ACL. As Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times tweets, this could reduce the cap space Seattle gains a bit since they’ll have to pay him a settlement if he doesn’t sign with another team in 2020. Condotta also notes that it’s one reason the release took a while. Still, we’ve heard Britt hasn’t suffered any setbacks with his knee, so the proven starter should land on his feet with a new team at some point.
  • Longtime 49ers left tackle Joe Staley recently decided to hang up his cleats, and the team acquired Trent Williams as a short-term replacement. They’ve indicated they won’t be ironing out an extension with Williams any time soon, and it’s highly possible he’s a one-year rental. That would leave them in need of another successor, and one potential option could be right tackle Mike McGlinchey. However, the 2018 first-round pick said he has no idea if he’ll ever become a left tackle and that he feels very comfortable on the right side, via Matt Maiocco of NBCSports.com (Twitter link). This echoes what we heard back in March when Staley was still mulling retirement, and it doesn’t sound like the team has any plans to move the Notre Dame product.

Cardinals To Sign De’Vondre Campbell

Another day, another pay day for a Drew Rosenhaus client. On Thursday, the Cardinals agreed to sign former Falcons linebacker De’Vondre Campbell to a one-year deal worth up to $8.5MM, according to ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter (on Twitter).

The exact terms of the deal are not yet known, so it will be interesting to see how much Campbell has secured in the form of guaranteed dollars and base pay. The real dollar amount is likely to be favorable for him – last year, he led the Falcons in tackles for the second straight year and turned in a perfect attendance record for the third straight season.

Campbell is a top-end run-stopper who took a major leap forward in 2019. In a perfect world, the Falcons would have liked to keep him, but the numbers crunch has forced them to make some tough choices in March.

Campbell drew trade interest before the deadline in October, but the Falcons opted to hold on to him. After a disappointing season, the Falcons might regret passing up the opportunity to get something in return for him. On the plus side, Campbell may factor into their compensatory pick formula.