Calais Campbell offer high fantasy floor, low ceiling in Jacksonville

For the second straight year, the Jacksonville Jaguars appear poised to land one of the top interior defensive linemen in free agency. Calais Campbell is expected to sign with Jacksonville after spending the first nine years of his career with the Cardinals. He joins an ascending defensive front that also features veteran Malik Jackson along with youngsters Dante Fowler and Yannick Ngakoue.

While the Jaguars have moved on from Gus Bradley at head coach, they retained the services of defensive coordinator Todd Walsh. That being said, Walsh is expected to shift away from Bradley’s hybrid 4-3 scheme that often resembled a 3-4 to a more traditional 4-3 scheme. This likely puts Campbell in a defensive end role on early downs with him kicking to the interior in passing situations.

For IDP purposes, that likely means more of the same from Campbell. In Arizona, he was perennial DL1 option with at least 50 total tackles in every season since 2010. Unfortunately, that very safe fantasy floor doesn’t come with a particularly high ceiling. Campbell has topped eight sacks just three times in his career and has never reached double digits. That isn’t likely to change in Jacksonville where most of his pass rushing will come from the interior. Still, Campbell remains in the DL1 conversation for 2017.

The Cardinals now have some work to do on the defensive side of the ball. They’re now left with Rodney Gunter and Ed Stinson atop their depth chart at defensive end. Arizona also has second-year man Robert Nkemdiche, who is a high-upside player who went through a rocky rookie year. He remains a hold in deep dynasty leagues.