The 2025 NFL Draft featured two Alabama players in the first round. The Dallas Cowboys chose guard Tyler Booker at No. 12, and the Philadelphia Eagles picked linebacker Jihaad Campbell at No. 31.
The rookies are set to make their NFL debuts on Thursday night in the same game.
“I’m just approaching it like I’ve approached every other game that I’ve played since college,” Booker said on Monday. “Just it’s the most important game because it’s the next game that I have, so I’m very much looking forward to Thursday.”
Although they share an entry point into the NFL, the Crimson Tide alumni are in different circumstances.
The Dallas depth chart shows Booker as the starter at right guard for his first NFL game. The Philadelphia depth chart lists Campbell and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. on the same first-team line together, with All-Pro Zack Baun at the other linebacker spot.
“I just don’t think at this particular time it benefits us to say that when I don’t have to,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said on Tuesday when asked which linebacker would start, “so I’ll announce it on Thursday.”
Nakobe Dean would be the starter with Baun, but he remains sidelined after sustaining a torn patellar tendon in the playoffs.
Before Booker and Campbell were picked, 31 Alabama players had been selected in the first round of the preceding 10 NFL drafts. Nineteen started the season-opening game of their rookie campaign.
“Whatever the coaches want me to do,” Campbell said. “Whatever there is at the given moment to execute and to prepare for, I’m ready for it.”
The NFC East rivals also are coming off different types of seasons.
The Cowboys went 7-10 in 2024 and replaced head coach Mike McCarthy with offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer for 2025. Booker is stepping into the position left vacant by the retirement of Zack Martin, a nine-time Pro Bowler during the previous 11 seasons for Dallas.
“The key to success for us is going to be consistency,” Booker said. “Just going out and playing our brand of football.”
The Eagles had a 14-3 record in 2024, won the NFC crown for the second time in three seasons and defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9.
Philadelphia has made it a point to put last season’s NFL championship behind them even while the franchise will celebrate it with a banner ceremony at Thursday night’s game.
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The attitude did not catch Campbell off-guard.
“I knew what the team was like even before they won the Super Bowl,” said Campbell, who is from Erial, New Jersey, about 15 miles from the site of Thursday night’s game. “I seen that they won a Super Bowl before they won the Super Bowl. And I mean by that just the preparation, the execution, that they believed in each other. You know, everybody just sticking with each other, competing with each other and growing and learning.”
The Cowboys and Eagles will square off at 7:20 p.m. CDT Thursday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia in the opening game of the NFL’s 106th season. NBC will televise the contest.
“It’s the Philly environment,” Campbell said. “You know, the city of Brotherly Love, they’re going to bring a lot of outrageous excitement and love and just fight and dignity towards the whole game, so it’s going to be a very exciting feeling and an exciting moment.”
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.
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