After three miserable seasons with the Colts, seasons riddled with injuries, slumps and disappointments, Parris Campbell thought he finally had his career pointed in the right direction.
Campbell’s first three seasons – 2019 through 2021 – he caught just 34 passes for 360 yards and two TDs in 15 games. But when he caught 63 balls for 623 yards and three TDs in 2022, for the first time in his NFL career he felt like he finally had it figured out.
Then disaster.
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He signed with the Giants last year and caught just 20 passes for 104 yards in 12 games and was inactive the last five weeks of the season.
It got so bad Campbell wondered if his career was over at 26 years old.
“To be honest, when the season ended, I didn't know what was going to come,” Campbell said after practice Saturday. “I was scared. I didn't know, maybe this was it, I didn't know what could come next.
“I went through so many injuries and tough things (my first three years. After my fourth year, I was like, ‘All right, I'm about to just go like this (points up).’ That's what I thought. But it didn't go like that. That's just not how it went.
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“When I was inactive, I was thinking about so much stuff. And I thought about life after football. I thought about if the game was taken away from me completely. I thought about, ‘Man, if I do get an opportunity, what am I going to do with it? So it just created a lot of scenarios in my head and I just got a different perspective for the game.”
In the wake of last season, Campbell went into what he calls a rut. He stopped training, stopped preparing for a possible 2024 season and began eating everything in sight to deal with his frustration.
“I was in a rut a little bit, I was in a kind of emotional rut and I don't know if you've ever heard of emotional eating? I was eating to just like … wash away the pain, whatever," he said. "I found myself gaining some weight that I knew I shouldn't have gained.”
It was during this period that Campbell began mulling a future that didn’t include football.
“Yeah, I thought about it, but I ain't really come up with no plan,” he said with a laugh. “It's a scary thing, because a lot of guys, this is all we have. We know we can do things in other areas. I'm not worried about it, but it is kind of scary to think about it.”
At some point, something clicked. Free agency began and Campbell knew he had to get motivated or his career really would be over.
He started working out three times a day – “lifting, boxing, running” – and suddenly teams were interested in the 6-foot-1, 205-pound 2nd-rounder from Ohio State.
On March 21, he signed a one-year deal with the Eagles, and a few days into training camp he’s in the lead in the battle for the third receiver spot behind A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.
“When we got the offer done, I was like, ‘All right, I got another shot, I got another opportunity,’” he said. “You've got an opportunity, you've got hope. You don’t have an opportunity, I’m sitting somewhere on the couch. So that opportunity, man, it means everything.”
It’s too early to predict what will come out of that opportunity. Former 1st-round pick John Ross is also in the mix for the third outside receiver spot, and nobody would be surprised if Howie Roseman trades for a receiver or signs someone else off the street.
But considering where he was a few months ago, it’s already been a successful summer for Campbell.
“I’ve kind of got a bigger chip on my shoulder just from how things went down last year,” he said. “I just felt like things didn't connect last year. That's fine. Every place and every person is not a great fit. It was what it was at the end of the day. But I carried that chip. I carried that chip on my shoulders.
“I worked my tail off this offseason. It's the same as every offseason, but I had a little bit different motivation just from last year.”
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