As a former No. 1 recruit coming out of high school, George Campbell never truly lived up to the hype at the collegiate level.
Campbell was decimated by a core muscle injury that ended consecutive seasons at Florida State before he transferred to West Virginia. There he averaged 24.7 yards per catch as a grad transfer. In Morgantown, seven of Campbell’s 19 receptions went for touchdowns. While the potential is certainly there, so are the injury concerns.
The Jets, however, took a flier on the wideout, signing him as an undrafted free agent. So, with that in mind, let’s get to Campbell a bit better.
Top recruit
George Campbell was a can’t miss wide receiver prospect back in high school.
He was a five-star recruit and the seventh-best player in the nation in the 2015 recruiting class, according to ESPN. He was also ranked the No. 1 athlete in the country and third-best prospect in Florida by ESPN.
After originally committing to the University of Michigan and de-committing, Campbell chose Florida State over offers from Auburn, Florida, Georgia and Alabama, among others.
From Florida State to West Virginia
After spending four years at Florida State and graduating, George Campbell elected to transfer to Penn State. However, Campbell had issues with the graduate admission program at Penn State, leading him to flip his commitment as a graduate transfer to West Virginia.
Battling injuries his entire career at Florida State, Campbell only caught 13 passes for 206 yards across his collegiate career in Tallahassee. Upon transferring to West Virginia, Campbell caught 19 passes for 469 yards, leading the Mountaineers with seven touchdowns.
Injury History
George Campbell’s once-promising college football career was derailed due to a core muscle injury.
After playing sparingly on special teams and wide receiver as a freshman, Campbell was redshirted during his sophomore season. Returning to the field as a junior, Campbell’s season ended prematurely due to a core muscle injury that required surgery. The following season, Campbell suffered complications from the initial injury.
Campbell’s long road to recovery robbed him of a successful college football career.
What he brings to the table
George Campbell is a wide receiver with outstanding size at 6-foot-4. The Jets are looking for a combination of size and speed with their undrafted free agent wide receives, signing both Campbell and Lawrence Cager.
Campbell has sub 4.4 40-yard dash speed and can turn on the afterburners when he needs to. He presents himself as another target who can stretch the field for Sam Darnold, but can also be a basketball hoop for the quarterback in the red zone.
Campbell can certainly come in and compete as a depth piece at outside receiver, but he has to shed any injury concerns that are still attached to his name.
