One of the best stories in the NFL this season is happening down in Miami. You may not have noticed it because the Dolphins are just 4-6 and they looked like an epic disaster while Tua Tagovailoa was out, but Miami has a 38-year-old defensive lineman who has been one of the best players in the NFL this season. Calais Campbell, in his 17th season in the league, is dominating games up front.
Campbell is only playing 58% of the Dolphins’ defensive snaps, but he has 4 sacks, 9 tackles for loss and 7 additional quarterback hits in his 10 games while playing almost exclusively on the interior of the defensive line.
As ESPN’s Seth Walder noted earlier this week, Campbell ranks third among all defensive tackles in pass rush win rate, checking in behind only Chris Jones and Zach Allen. Campbell also checks in 10th in the entire league with 15 “havoc” plays, according to Tru Media, which means he has 15 combined tackles for loss, forced fumbles, interceptions, pass breakups and sacks. And his 4.4% havoc rate (havoc plays per snap) is tied for the best in all of football.
The six-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro is up to 109.5 career sacks and 184 career tackles for loss, the latter of which leads all active players. His continued high-level play inspired teammate Jonnu Smith to compare him with another player in his late-30s who is currently dominating his sport.
“Calais is one of my favorite teammates in all the sports that I’ve played,” Smith said Monday on The Pat McAfee Show. “He’s like the LeBron James of the NFL right now as far as his age and the production that he brings to the game, still playing at a high level. I mean, the guy is 1,000 years old and playing like he’s 21.”
Campbell was still in college at the University of Miami when he was 21 years old, and he was indeed pretty dominant. (I should know. He was my classmate.) The NFL career he’s had since then has taken him from Arizona to Jacksonville, Baltimore, Atlanta and finally back to South Florida. He has played on the edge and the interior, and been a monster run defender or dominant pass rusher depending on the demands of his scheme.
Campbell is also a former winner of both the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year award and the NFLPA’s Alan Page Community Award, and Smith noted how admirable his personality and demeanor off the field are as well.
“The best leader I’ve been around,” Smith said. “Good dude, good person, deserves everything that’s coming to him. It’s guys like that, when you come in here, and your season could be looking kind of cloudy, it’s guys like that (you’re like), ‘I’m going to go through a brick wall for him.'”
