Jack Campbell signed a four-year extension with the Detroit Lions last week, and the deal makes him the second highest-paid linebacker in the NFL. The linebacker’s new contract is worth $81 million in new money and gives him an average annual value of $20.25 million, trailing only San Francisco’s Fred Warner at $21 million.
Campbell, 25, was due to make $2,757,549 this fall in the final year of his rookie contract, with a cap hit of $4.684 million. Instead, his new contract includes an $8.612 million signing bonus, four option bonuses totaling more than $50 million and four void years for salary cap purposes. The structure also pushes money into later seasons while giving Detroit a lower cap number at the start of the deal.
In 2026, Campbell is set to receive a $1.145 million base salary and a $9.758 million cash total, with a cap number of $4.794 million. His cap figures then rise to $5.46 million in 2027 and $9.275 million in 2028 before jumping to $24.12 million in 2029. The contract also includes option bonuses of $11.89 million in 2027, $18.45 million in 2028, $5 million in 2029 and $15.4 million in 2030, along with base salaries of $1.26 million, $1.305 million, $15.15 million and $2.75 million in those years, plus a $100,000 workout bonus each season.
The Lions declined Campbell’s guaranteed fifth-year option before finalizing the extension, and the estimated value of that option was $21.925 million. That decision fits a pattern in Detroit, which has used multiple void years in recent extensions for other draft picks, including Aidan Hutchinson and Jameson Williams, to keep early cap charges manageable and move the cost down the road.
If Campbell plays out the deal without modifications, the void years from 2031 through 2034 would leave the Lions with a dead money hit of $25.236 million in 2031. For now, Detroit has locked in one of its core defenders on a market-setting contract, but the back end of the deal shows exactly how aggressively the team is willing to push salary-cap pain into the future.
