Detroit Lions LB Jack Campbell's emergence sends Charles Harris to bench
BALTIMORE — A slow start to the season and the emergence of rookie first-round pick Jack Campbell has made defensive captain Charles Harris the odd man out in the Detroit Lions' outside linebacker rotation.
Harris, who led the Lions with a career-high 7.5 sacks in 2021, was a healthy scratch in Sunday's loss to the Baltimore Ravens for the first time this season.
"Charles is a guy who puts the work in, he’s one of our captains. He gets it," Lions coach Dan Campbell said. "He was busting his ass in practice again and he knows this isn’t it. I mean, this isn’t it for him. He could very well be up next week. So that’s kind of — that’s where it was at."
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Harris recorded 1.5 sacks among 10 tackles in the first six games of the season but had seen his playing dwindle in recent weeks.
He did not make a tackle in 18 defensive snaps in last week's win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and had fallen behind both Jack Campbell and Julian Okwara in the outside linebacker rotation.
Campbell, who also plays middle linebacker, made his second consecutive start at outside linebacker Sunday. Linebackers coach Kelvin Sheppard said the rookie's versatility has been key to his increased usage.
"I love his physicality that he plays with," Sheppard said last week. "(When) he puts hands on somebody, it’s with bad intentions. And then the ability that we have with that on-ball player to stack back off the ball and it’d be something (natural), whereas a guy like Charles, they can do it absolutely, but it’s not natural for him and you’re asking him to get you out of the down versus, 'All right, let’s stack Jack off the ball, we’re good.'
"What it does is it keeps the offense up all night. Now we don’t know where this player’s going to be, where he’s aligning, what his role is, cause we also rush this player a lot. So it just creates versatility within the scheme."
Dan Campbell said the Lions only had room for one backup outside linebacker on their gameday roster Sunday, when down lineman Josh Paschal returned from injured reserve and Okwara played nine defensive snaps.
Okwara was credited with the Lions' only quarterback hit Sunday, and the team did not record a sack on Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.
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"It’s (Harris) or J.O., it’s one of those two," Campbell said. "I can’t bring both, and so that was kind of what it was."
Practice perks
Dan Campbell said he did not feel like the Lions' revamped practice schedule last week contributed to Sunday's poor performance.
The Lions held an hour-long walk-through in lieu of practice last Wednesday, then practiced Thursday and Friday.
This week, players are off Monday and Tuesday, and will return to the facility Wednesday for an extra day of practice before next Monday night's game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
"I didn’t feel that," Dan Campbell said. "There was a time last year I felt it leading into the game where I didn’t feel that this week. But look, I got to look at everything and make sure that I'm doing what’s best for our team to get ready and not what feels good. So now I do that, then you guys are going to be on my ass about injuries like, 'Aren’t you pushing them too hard?' I got that, but no, I'm going to look at everything. My job is to get them ready to play and they clearly were not ready to play, which that falls on my shoulders. And there’s no way around that, I know that."
On the mend
Mohamed Ibrahim is back in Detroit and walking again after spending the night in a Baltimore-area hospital after he dislocated his hip in Sunday's loss, Dan Campbell said Monday.
"They just needed to put him under to get the hip back in, which it did. It’s good," Campbell said. "And so he’s obviously, he's walking around. So that’s good news. That’s good news."
Ibrahim was injured when he was tackled after a 22-yard kick return in Sunday's third quarter.
Lions players immediately began waving to the sideline for medical help, and Ibrahim was loaded onto a stretcher and taken off the field by cart.
Promoted to Sunday's game day roster from the Lions practice squad, Ibrahim played six special teams snaps in his NFL debut.
Campbell said "it’ll be a while" before he's able to return to the field.
"Still a lot of pain, but at least he can move that hip," Campbell said. "But that’s what it was, just needed to get it back in."
Campbell said safety Kerby Joseph, who was removed from Sunday's game and evaluated for a brain injury, is no longer in concussion protocol. Joseph should play next Monday night.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How Detroit Lions LB Jack Campbell is pushing Charles Harris to bench
