Ravens veteran defensive tackle Calais Campbell still wants to win a Super Bowl, which has eluded him in his 15-year NFL career.
That’s why, after hinting at the idea of retirement late in the 2021 season, he decided to come back to play this season.
On Monday, Campbell said he will weigh a similar decision over the next few weeks.
“I don’t think it would be wise to decide so quickly. ... but it will be hard to walk away, that’s for sure,” the elder statesman of the Ravens’ locker room said during locker clean-out on Monday afternoon, after their season ended with a 24-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday night. “We’ll see. I’ll talk to the front office and talk to the coaches. There’s a chance I could be back here again next year. I just have to go through that process.”
The prospect of winning a championship gnaws at Campbell, a six-time Pro Bowler who signed a two-year, $12.5 million deal before the 2022 season. After reaching the Super Bowl as a rookie with the Kurt Warner-led Arizona Cardinals way back in 2008, and coming up short against the Pittsburgh Steelers, he hasn’t gotten another chance at playing for the Lombardi Trophy.
He thinks he has a chance with the Ravens — and with Lamar Jackson at quarterback, he was clear to point out on Monday. “The core of the team is in a really good spot to do some great things going forward,” Campbell said. But given he’s 36 years old and just added another year of wear and tear, including missing two games late in the regular season with a knee injury, Campbell said he has some thinking to do and discussions to have with the team.
Campbell was effective this year and helped make the defensive line in general a bit stronger than recent seasons. He started 14 games, made 36 tackles, had 5.5 sacks, and made a crucial blocked kick in the Ravens’ 16-14 win in Pittsburgh last month. He wants to make sure he can keep up a high level of play.
“I don’t want to be a guy out here who is just being a guy. That matters,” he said. “I want to make sure that I’m confident that I can be a difference-maker. It wouldn’t do justice to my career and legacy if I go out there and become less than what I’ve been. That’s something I have to weigh. This year, I think that I was on par.”
Campbell was also asked about Jackson, who missed the final five games of the regular season and Sunday’s playoff game in Cincinnati due to a sprained PCL in his left knee. Jackson, of course, has questions about his own long-term future with the team as a pending free agent. Campbell said the quarterback’s status won’t be a part of his process when weighing retirement, but he did offer a few nuanced thoughts on the ongoing discussion — in and outside the Ravens’ building — about the quarterback.
After saying he hopes Jackson will remain with the team for the long term (“You can’t let a guy like that go,” Campbell said) and that reaching a contract extension is in the best interests of the organization, he vouched for Jackson’s injury being significant (“You get to see him rehab. I was rehabbing with him — I know he put the work and he just didn’t get back in time”) and offered some constructive veteran advice.
“I truly believe he worked as hard as he could to give him a chance to play,” Campbell said. “As he gets older and more wise, he’ll learn how to take care of his body in different ways. He’ll have to learn that process of doing pre-hab so you doesn’t have to do rehab, but that’s something that comes from time. When I was 26, I didn’t know what I know now. There’s plenty of time for him to learn and grow.”
After not traveling with the team for the game against Cincinnati, Jackson was at the Ravens facility on Monday but didn’t appear in the locker room during the roughly 90 minutes reporters were allowed in after the Ravens held a team-wide meeting. If he was, given his stall’s proximity to Campbell’s in the Ravens’ locker room, Jackson likely would have heard the veteran’s gravelly, respected voice — perhaps for the final time in that setting.
“We played some good football, but we just didn’t get it done,” Campbell said. “The way these years go, you dedicate a lot. … to give it your best shot, but only one team gets to go home happy. That’s the nature of the business. We don’t get to be that team this year.”
Houston, Clark want to be back
Campbell may be the most notable Ravens veteran with an uncertain status moving ahead, but there are a handful of others in similar situations, namely defensive end Justin Houston and safety Chuck Clark.
Houston, who just finished his 12th season and had 9.5 sacks, turns 34 in just a few days and will be a free agent this offseason. He said Sunday he wants to keep playing, but is unsure if it will be with Baltimore again. “The way I feel right now, I’ll be back,” Houston said on Sunday night. “We’ll see if the chips work out, and I’ll be here. That’s out of my control. We’ll see what they do. I’d like to be back here.”
Clark, a sixth-year pro who became part of a crowded depth chart last offseason at safety when Marcus Williams signed and the Ravens drafted Kyle Hamilton in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft, is entering the last year of a contract that would cost $6.2 million against the salary cap next season.
Clark was in tears in the Ravens locker room after their loss to the Bengals on Sunday night. He said on Monday that was for two reasons. “When you lose and get sent home, it ain’t a good feeling. ... and then me, my uncertainty here in Baltimore,” Clark said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. We’ll figure it out in talks the next couple weeks.”
While acknowledging last offseason and the start of this season was difficult and “mentally challenging,” especially after the Ravens drafted Hamilton — prompting Clark to request a trade — Clark grew to appreciate a three-man safety rotation. He ended up starting all 19 games the Ravens played this season, and said he wants to return.
“I know what I want to happen. It ain’t up to me at the end of the day,” Clark said. “This is the team that drafted me. I’m comfortable here. I know the guys, the locker room, the environment, but I don’t know.”
In a mostly empty locker room on Monday, filled with more members of the media than players, and giant hampers filled with used cleats and other scattered gear bound for charities, Clark and Campbell took a few moments to exchange a private remarks about what might happen this offseason.
But only time will reveal the answers.
Corey McLaughlin is a veteran writer and editor who has covered sports in Baltimore for a decade, including for Baltimore magazine, USA Lacrosse Magazine and several other publications.
