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Marcel Louis-Jacques, ESPN
MIAMI — Three days before the Miami Dolphins‘ 2024 season opener, a media scrum gathered around offensive lineman Terron Armstead. He fielded questions about sleep tracking and load management, laughing off a comparison to the NBA, where players sometimes take nights off to mitigate a nagging injury.
He was asked if the practice would find its way to the NFL.
“No, that would never happen,” he said. “Never, never.”
He was then asked about teammate Calais Campbell — the oldest active lineman in the NFL on either side of the ball — and whether there are any similarities between how they prepare their bodies for game day.
A wide grin broke out across the 33-year-old’s face.
“Listen, I’m not in Calais’ — he’s in another tier of veteran. I am not there,” Armstead said. “Whatever he do, that’s what he do. What I do is what I do. He is in his own world. That’s the OG, triple OG.”
It’s true. In his 12th NFL season, Armstead was a junior at Cahokia High School in Illinois when Campbell was drafted 50th overall by the Arizona Cardinals after three seasons at the University of Miami in 2008.
Campbell, now 38 and playing in his 17th NFL season, signed with the Dolphins this offseason. But as Miami prepares to host the Tennessee Titans on Monday night (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), Campbell’s love for the game and production has been a silver lining for a team in need of one. He has made the most of his time on the field, despite playing the second-lowest percentage of defensive snaps of his career. Campbell leads the team in sacks, passes defended and tackles for a loss.
The average NFL career spans 3.3 years, according to the NFL players’ association. Campbell has matched that five times over, playing 247 of a possible 261 regular season games in his career. He has played more games than any active player except for Cardinals kicker Matt Prater and Bears tight end Marcedes Lewis, and has played the fourth-most games of any defensive lineman in NFL history.
Campbell says he has mulled retirement for the past four seasons or so. He has put significant effort into his preparation so, if he decided to retire, he would do so knowing he gave it everything he had.
The retirement considerations never last long. Campbell loves the game and is still playing at a high level.
It’s tough to walk away from that.
“If I ever feel like my play is dropping, I can’t be that guy, I can’t still deliver in big moments, then it’d be time to hang it up,” Campbell said. “But as of right now, I felt like towards the end of last year I was playing the best ball of the season.”
CAMPBELL RECORDED A sack on Miami’s first defensive snap of the season, tracking and tackling Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence for a 13-yard loss. It was the 106th sack of his career.
On the next play, the 6-foot-8, 307-pound lineman shot into a gap in the Jags’ line and brought down running back Travis Etienne for a 1-yard loss.
It was an exciting start to a day that had been anything but for Campbell and the Dolphins.
Hours before the game kicked off, wide receiver Tyreek Hill was pulled over just outside the Hard Rock Stadium grounds for speeding, and ultimately put in handcuffs after failing to comply when an officer asked him to roll down his window.
Campbell was driving by and pulled over. After being told to back away from the situation, Miami-Dade Police Department officer Danny Torres put him in handcuffs and threatened to arrest him. The altercation was recorded by passersby and went viral on social media.
Torres, who also dragged Hill out of his car and handcuffed him, was put on administrative duties within hours of the incident — something Campbell said was “very much the way it should go.”
It was an unforeseen scenario for a player who is known for his character, winning the Walter Payton Man of the Year award in 2019 — an annual award, the NFL says, given to a player who has had “a significant positive impact on the community.”
Campbell didn’t want to dwell on the situation when speaking to reporters after the game. He said he stopped at the scene to try to de-escalate what he believed was “excessive force” by the officers involved.
He said his dominant start to the game was not related to the events leading up to it.
“It had nothing to do with that situation,” Campbell said. “I told the guys … my goal was to set the tone, set the tone for the whole season. Being 38 years old, I don’t know how much I got in the tank. I was just going out there giving everything I had. But I knew early in the game I could make a difference.
“It’s a good feeling. Definitely the questions you have when you go into a season — Year 17, it’s like, can I still dominate? Can I still take a full ballgame? And it felt pretty good to be able to make some big plays to get the game going.”
His unwillingness to leave his teammate in a sensitive situation resonated within the Dolphins’ building. It’s an offshoot of the character Campbell, who was voted a captain in his first year in Miami, has displayed since joining the team.
Coach Mike McDaniel was unnerved by the detention of Hill and Campbell but was proud of how his team stuck together in the moment.
“It’s what you hope your team is comprised of,” McDaniel said. “Situations that you can’t plan for sometimes give you the best window into where your team is at. I’m very proud that they see each other as teammates and hold that in regard the way they do. You spend as much time, you are so interwoven into the story of their lives that you hope that teammates understand that we are extended family.
“I was very happy that a guy in a situation like that didn’t feel alone.”
THE OLDEST DEFENSIVE lineman to play in the NFL is Jim Marshall, who, at 42 years old, played 16 games for the Minnesota Vikings in 1970. Campbell isn’t necessarily chasing that record.
Campbell recorded 56.5 sacks in his first nine seasons with the Cardinals, before exploding with the Jaguars, recording 31.5 sacks from 2017 to 2019. His production tailed off in his three seasons with the Ravens, totaling 11 sacks from 2020 to 2022, but he responded with 6.5 sacks in his lone season with the Falcons in 2024.
Campbell says there is no specific secret to his longevity. He says it simply begins with understanding the human body.
“Man, I’ve done so many different things,” he said. “… I feel like I became a biologist in terms of understanding the body a lot better. That’s become a big part of what I do, and it’s worked so far. Hopefully it works for one more year.”
Campbell has noticed an increased interest in players taking care of their bodies over the past 10 years or so. He expects to see a significant number of them playing “dominant football” well into their 30s.
“When I first got to the league, it was a whole different mindset. It’s crazy to think about the changes,” he said. “It’s 16 or 17 years, I don’t think that information was just available back then. A lot of guys, their mindset — even the amount of plays you played was different.
“I’ve had so many guys ask me my routine, my plan and the things I’ve tried. I’m always an open book, I always share my knowledge.”
Falcons linebacker Arnold Ebiketie said he frequently “shadowed” Campbell during his pregame routine last season and tries to implement Campbell’s routine to this day — including an increased focus on hydration. Ebikietie said Campbell would often drink at least six large bottles of water each day.
Miami offensive lineman Kendall Lamm said Campbell takes care of his body at all times.
“Even the days that he gets veteran rest, he’s in there stretching, he’s in there doing certain things. He’s contrasting, he’s in the pool working,” Lamm said. “People don’t understand. They think that when we’re in the building, this s— has to be turned on. No, no, no, no, no. If you want to do it for a long time, you got to do it when no eyes are on you.”
McDaniel said the way Campbell works and prepares has an impact on his teammates.
“His teammates that are 15 years younger than him have a hard time not finishing a drill, finishing a play, straining and having exuberance to come to work every day when they’re watching him do that,” McDaniel said.
“I knew that he’s an absolute freak in terms of being able to play that position for that long at such a high level. I didn’t necessarily really think through the natural influence that on a day-to-day basis … I think he was in college when the iPod came out. That’s pretty amazing that he’s now executing jobs that guys were barely alive when he started executing that job and he’s doing it alongside them.”
CAMPBELL PLAYED A season-low 45% of the Dolphins snaps in their Week 3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, as the team looks to manage his snaps in his 17th season. He was effective, though, with a sack, two quarterback hits and a pass deflection that led to a Zach Sieler interception in the third quarter.
He’s not likely to see his workload dialed back for as long as he can handle it. Weaver wants Campbell in the game during critical moments.
“You always want to make sure he’s playing in the game where you can feel he can be most impactful,” Weaver said. “Sometimes there’s a fine balance in that. You also want to do that, yet not have him sit around too long so he does start to get stiff, and that’s any veteran player. So there’s an art to it. It kind of just depends on [how] the flow of the game is going.
“But the one thing you do know is if it’s a critical situation, there’s a high likelihood that Calais Campbell is going to be in the game.”
For as long as he’s needed, Campbell is ready to play. Beyond the hydration and self-care, he is still playing nearly two decades into his career for one reason.
He loves it.
“What I admire about him is his true love for the game, man. He loves this s— for real,” Armstead said. “Calais, he breathes football. To have somebody that is that excited to play this game after so many years, so many battles, so many double-teams, but he still wants to come out and play this game, fly around, just have fun — that’s incredible. It gives you energy to see that.”