Earlier this offseason, we wrote deep dives on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ three coordinator hires: OC Brian Angelichio, DC Patrick Graham, and STC Danny Crossman. Earlier than the offseason ends, we’re doing the identical with a key positional coach: offensive line coach James Campen. Typically, the place is a crucial rent. The Steelers have benefited once they’ve gotten it proper (Mike Munchak) and paid the worth once they’ve gotten it mistaken (Jack Bicknell Jr., Adrian Klemm).
Campen is a veteran coach who has been within the NFL for greater than 20 years. Understanding him and his background is essential to understanding the Steelers’ offense as an entire. Just like the others, we’ll dive into his background and training philosophy.
Background
Born in Sacramento, California, in June 1964, Campen was a participant earlier than he turned a coach. He started at close by Sacramento Metropolis School earlier than transferring to Tulane for the 1984 and 1985 seasons, a couple of decade earlier than Omar Khan arrived on campus.
Undersized, he went undrafted in 1986 and signed with the New Orleans Saints. His first NFL motion got here with three begins at middle in 1987, a door opened by the ’87 strike. Campen took the sector as a alternative participant, beginning towards the Los Angeles Rams, St. Louis Cardinals, and the Chicago Bears. The Saints went 2-1, however when the strike ended, Campen returned to the bench.
Campen signed with the Inexperienced Bay Packers in 1989. He spent the primary season as a backup however earned the beginning job in 1990, beginning all 16 video games. He held the beginning function by the primary month of the 1993 season till a hamstring damage put him on injured reserve for the remainder of the season. Enjoyable truth: he was additionally a teammate of the late Tunch Ilkin for that ’93 season.
With a knee damage in 1992 and his 1993 hamstring ailment, Campen retired after the season. He appeared in 67 video games throughout eight years, making 50 begins.
Previous media guides supply a further window into his background as a participant and individual. Right here is Campen’s excerpt from the 1992 media information.
Some highlights:
– Coaches praised his intelligence: “He’s bright, and he’s your classic overachiever. He works hard. I feel like – because of his intelligence and the way that he plays – he’s good for our line,” stated o-line coach Tom Lovatt.
– He needed to “talk his way into” getting the Saints to signal him
– He performed emergency defensive deal with throughout his time with the Saints
– In highschool, he lettered in soccer and wrestling
– Turned a reserve deputy sheriff in New Orleans and Inexperienced Bay
– Competed in NFL Arm Wrestling tournaments
– Loves wrestling and the WWF
Actually, on that final level, Campen minimize this 1993 promo that resurfaced just a few years in the past.
Campen was Inexperienced Bay’s beginning middle for Brett Favre’s first begin, Week 4 of the 1992 season. Humorous sufficient, that got here towards the Pittsburgh Steelers. Favre threw two touchdowns in a 17-3 Packers win.
He was considered a troublesome and old-school lineman who performed with an edge. And performed harm. Present process collarbone surgical procedure one yr, he requested the Packers’ group physician who eliminated a bit of his collarbone to drill a gap in it. Campen tied a bit of string to it and wore it for the season opener, vowing to play, and threw it onto the sector at first of the sport.
“I threw the bone out there about the 20-yard line…it got ground up in the dirt somewhere,” Campen stated throughout an NFL Movies characteristic piece.
Earlier than leaping into NFL teaching, Campen labored at the highschool degree. Returning to his alma mater, Ponderosa Excessive College in Shingle Springs, California, he was employed as the college’s defensive coordinator. From 1999 to 2003, he served as this system’s head coach, amassing a 29-20-1 report.
The NFL got here calling in 2004. Mike Sherman employed Campen as Inexperienced Bay’s assistant o-line coach/high quality management coach, a low-level job however one which knocked down the NFL teaching door. When Mike McCarthy was employed in 2006, Campen was retained as o-line assistant below head o-line coach Joe Philbin.
Whereas Campen’s function was teaching the offensive line, his relationship with Favre was crucial. Successfully, Campen served because the go-between of Favre and McCarthy/the entrance workplace. McCarthy tried to color the image otherwise, however this 2008 article outlines that it was by Campen that Inexperienced Bay first heard Favre was contemplating unretiring.
Campen was named Inexperienced Bay’s head offensive line coach in 2008. He developed a repute for growing mid and late spherical picks into starters: Allen Barbe (4th spherical), Josh Sitton (4th spherical), T.J. Lang (4th spherical), Marshall Newhouse (fifth spherical), David Bakhtiari (4th spherical), J.C. Tretter (4th spherical), and Corey Linsley (fifth spherical) are just a few examples.
Others had success elsewhere that may be credited to Campen. Like OT Breno Giacomini, who went on to begin almost 90 NFL video games, even when none got here in Inexperienced Bay. He was near Campen, and after being minimize by the Packers in 2010, he signed again to the follow squad due to that relationship.
“My offensive line coach was the one who was pushing really hard for me to come back here,” Giacomini advised WickedLocal.com. “We just kept talking throughout the whole process. And I feel comfortable here. That’s one of the major things, I feel real comfortable here, and I feel like I’m just going to get better every day.”
Campen is understood for his shut relationship not simply with Favre but in addition with Aaron Rodgers. The 2 walked comparable paths. Each have been born in California. In Inexperienced Bay, each males lived in the identical city of Suamico, Wisconsin. Rodgers purchased his home there in 2005 and lived there till 2017.
When Rodgers’ Jets and Campen’s crossed paths for a joint follow, Rodgers had slightly enjoyable at Campen’s expense. A separate NFL Movies characteristic particulars it all of the extra. Narrated by Rodgers himself, the video centered on Campen’s return to Inexperienced Bay as a member of the Houston Texans for a 2021 preseason sport.
“Campy has been like a big brother to me since I got in the league,” Rodgers stated. “When I was 21 and a rookie, for whatever reason, he took me under his wing. He was there for me. The moments when I was a young player with not a lot of friends on the squad, not understanding what was going on, caught behind, you know, a legendary quarterback not playing, you know, he was my confidant. We started going to dinner on the road every single week. We had a kind of a standing date and then growing our friendship together over the years. He’s a really special, special person.”
Rodgers famous Campen has a “Miracle Mile” custom that he nonetheless did by at the least 2021 and will proceed as we speak. For each highway sport, Campen walks across the metropolis and arms out $1,000 to the homeless.
“James has the biggest heart that I know. He’s such a special human. He cares about people so much.”
The 2 even have a enjoyable future guess.
“When he’s 70, and I’m 50, we have a wrestling match. Winner gets paid a charity of our choice.”
See you in about 8 years.
Campen coached in Inexperienced Bay by the 2018 season. McCarthy was fired halfway by the season, and Campen joined the Cleveland Browns in 2019 as head offensive line coach and assistant head coach. Freddie Kitchens was fired on the finish of the yr, and Campen coached the Los Angeles Chargers’ offensive line in 2020. In 2021, he joined the Houston Texans and in 2022, the Carolina Panthers, the place he changed Pat Meyer. In Pittsburgh, Campen is once more changing Meyer.
It’s lots of transferring for a coach, however he’s had some dangerous luck with head coaches. LA’s Anthony Lynn was fired on the finish of 2020, and David Culley was let go after the 2021 season. With head coach modifications usually come employees modifications that aren’t all the time a mirrored image of a person coach’s potential. Nonetheless, Campen’s time post-Inexperienced Bay hasn’t been as profitable.
Campen stepped away from soccer after the 2023 season and reportedly opened and ran a ironmongery store again in Wisconsin. In 2024, he rejoined the Packers as a scouting advisor. Largely, the function was distant, and Campen helped from his Florida residence.
Former longtime offensive line coach James Campen is again with the Packers.
I’m advised he’s going to work below GM Brian Gutekunst in a scouting function as a advisor.
He’s right here for the ultimate portion of camp however will principally work remotely from his residence in Florida. pic.twitter.com/sKhdaJDJWg
Another odds and ends. Every year, Campen works at “Trench Camp,” based by Stan Brock, which works with highschool linemen and prospects. He’s slated to return for the 2026 model July 10-12 in Salem, Oregon.
Jon Gruden linked up with Campen a few years in the past. Gruden coached in Inexperienced Bay within the 90s when Campen performed. It led to a humorous second when Gruden received Campen again into his stance and made Favre’s favourite pre-snap line calls.
Throughout his enjoying days, Campen would regale neighborhood youngsters with magic methods.
Lastly, Campen has been the topic of a number of NFL Movies items, which we’ll discuss extra about under. That is perhaps as a result of Campen’s daughter works for NFL Movies. Kaley Campen is a Expertise Producer and works carefully with Arduous Knocks, together with the 2024 version that centered on the AFC North.
“It’s really terrific,” Campen stated in a 2025 interview. “It really kinda hit the first time we were on the field at the same time. We have a picture of that. When I was at Cleveland, she was working that game. We got a picture together. ‘Hey, we’re both working’…I can’t imagine my life without her.”
Teaching Philosophy
In contrast to Pat Meyer, I couldn’t discover a teaching clinic video that Campen led. It makes it more durable to search out out his educating model and factors of emphasis. Nonetheless, there’s loads of info on him as a coach, as advised by his former gamers, together with some quotes from Campen himself. Former lineman Dane Rudolph as soon as shared his camp expertise below Campen.
“When he did single me out was a one-on-one drill against the defense,” he advised the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2009. “I had done a good job the first round, but I didn’t do up to the standards that he wanted. He wanted me to go beyond just beating the guy. He wanted me to beat the guy and make sure he did not come back. Once he told me what I needed to do, I was like, ‘Okay, I can do that.’ So I did it.”
Drafting Giacomini and Josh Sitton in the identical class, Campen identified their shared traits that he discovered relevant to the NFL.
“They will go to the whistle — and beyond. They’re tough, they hustle to get downfield, they finish blocks,” he stated through 247 Sports activities. “They are both high-energy, tough people. And they’ll bring that type of attitude in the offensive line unit.”
Sounds quite a bit like Gennings Dunker from this yr’s class.
One operating theme from all my analysis was Campen’s emphasis on teaching and enjoying to every participant’s strengths. Easy as that sounds, not each coach takes that strategy. Working inside a participant’s wheelhouse as an alternative of constructing him a cookie-cutter model of the best maximizes his ceiling.
“I think it’s partly because Coach took his strengths, helped with some areas he may not be the best at, and helped bring his level up to elite,” former Packers’ lineman Lucas Patrick as soon as stated of fellow lineman Lane Taylor, an undrafted free agent who went on to look in 87 video games with 55 begins.
“He was patient with me, teaching me center, guard and tackle,” longtime lineman Justin McCray stated in the identical above interview. “He’s a real player’s coach. He figures out what you do well, and he maximizes on that. He also gave me a chance to figure out if I could play in this league, so I appreciate him a lot for that.”
Additionally undrafted, McCray went on to begin almost 40 NFL video games and performed below Campen almost each step of the best way. In Inexperienced Bay, Cleveland, Houston, and Carolina.
Campen’s middle background makes him much more pure to teach the place, whether or not for these new to it or these tenured.
“Campy, being a natural center himself, helped a ton. In the NFL, it’s a different game than it was in college. We play a different offense entirely. His tutelage has been awesome for me over the past couple years,” Corey Linsley stated in the identical Packers characteristic piece above.
Campen is understood for his coronary heart and take care of gamers. That may come within the type of powerful love, too. After a foul 2023 preseason outing, Campen held a closed-door locker room assembly and apparently ripped into his unit, although he stored the main points in-house when reporters pressed him.
On the sector, Campen desires powerful gamers. Mentally and bodily.
“If you’re mentally tough and you can overcome things, or you can again play with balance in your mind and you have balance in your feet,” he stated whereas a member of the Chargers. “You’re all the time gonna have your ft on the bottom.
“There’s a lot of coaches that use the saying, be where your feet are. You gotta live in that movement, and the moments are about 4.5 seconds, and you’re back in a huddle. And so you have to make sure you can turn a switch on and off when you need to. And during that time, be mentally tough. That’s when it’s physical, it’s time to go. So display the physical presence.”
Along with his observe report of growing mid-round picks and undrafted free brokers, Campen pays no thoughts to how his gamers get to the roster.
“I can give a flying crap if you’re drafted in the first round or you’re a free agent that just walked on two days before camp,” he stated within the above Chargers interview.
Coaching camp might be key for this returning and new-look group. Campen gives the unit some grace.
“I think the good thing about our staff overall and Coach Campy is they understand there’s going to be struggle,” Austin Corbett as soon as stated through the Panthers’ web site. “They perceive you’re going to get beat. You’re going to see the way you adapt, you’re going to see the way you develop, that’s what coaching camp’s for…it’s a matter of simply having the ability to hold guys’ confidence up whereas they’re getting beat….it’s okay.
“This is what training camp’s for, and you’re going to grow through it.”
Remaining Ideas
Like all coach, Campen might be considered nearly as good as his gamers. Accidents can throw wrenches into conditions. Campen comes with loads of expertise and pedigree. His gamers appeared to get pleasure from enjoying for him, and his mentality of specializing in participant strengths is constructive. As is his potential to mould “lesser” expertise undervalued or ignored all through the pre-draft course of.
His bumpy outcomes since leaving Inexperienced Bay are worthy of pause. In fact, reuniting with McCarthy in Pittsburgh will increase the possibilities of philosophical alignment and success. Total, I’m blissful concerning the rent and the pairing of the vet, Campen, with the youthful assistant, Jahri Evans.
