49ers’ De’Vondre Campbell refuses to play, teammates suggest he should be cut
Dec 13, 2024, 7:49 AM | Updated: Dec 17, 2024, 7:32 am
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — San Francisco linebacker De’Vondre Campbell refused to enter Thursday night’s game in the third quarter after losing his starting job when Dre Greenlaw returned from an injury.
Campbell had started 12 of the first 13 games of the season and played 90% of defensive snaps for the 49ers but was benched for San Francisco’s 12-6 loss to the Los Angeles Rams after Greenlaw came back for his first game since tearing his left Achilles tendon in last season’s Super Bowl.
Greenlaw had eight tackles in the first half but left the game in the third quarter with soreness in his Achilles tendon. That’s when Campbell refused to enter the game.
“He said he didn’t want to play today,” coach Kyle Shanahan said after the loss, which left the 49ers (6-8) on the brink of playoff elimination.
Shanahan said he has never seen that before in his coaching career and said the team will “figure out something” on how to deal with it going forward.
Campbell walked to the locker room, leaving his teammates bewildered and angry.
“He’s a professional,” cornerback Charvarius Ward said. “He’s been playing for a long time. If he didn’t want to play he shouldn’t have dressed out. He could have told them that before the game. I feel like that was some selfish (stuff) that he did. It definitely hurt the team. Dre went down and we needed a linebacker. … For him to do that, that’s some selfish (stuff) to me in my opinion. He’s probably going get cut soon.”
Here is the whole Mooney Ward exchange on De'Vondre Campbell refusing to go into the game tonight.
Mooney was brutally honest about a guy who appeared to quit on his team. #49ers | #FTTB pic.twitter.com/CT6zNcC4t1
— Matt Lively (@mattblively) December 13, 2024
The 31-year-old Campbell signed a one-year, $5 million deal in the offseason with San Francisco after being cut by Green Bay in March.
He had been an All-Pro in 2021 for the Packers but his play fell off the last two seasons in Green Bay. He had a few bright moments in San Francisco this season but struggled frequently with tackling and in coverage.
“It’s one person making a selfish decision,” tight end George Kittle said. “I’ve never been around anybody that’s ever done that and I hope I’m never around anybody who does that again.”
–The Associated Press
De’Vondre Campbell spent 2020 with the Arizona Cardinals
A fourth-round pick in 2016 by the Atlanta Falcons, Campbell developed into an every-down player by his second season. He entered free agency after his rookie contract ended and was a target of the Arizona Cardinals, who didn’t have the big cash to offer him early on in free agency.
But the market dried up, and Campbell circled back to sign a one-year, $6 million deal with Arizona coming off a 129-tackle season with the Falcons. It was a prove-it deal and prove-it he did.
Campbell produced in Arizona alongside MIKE backer Jordan Hicks and ahead of rookie Isaiah Simmons, recording 99 tackles with two sacks and three passes defensed in 2020.
It earned him another one-year deal with the Green Bay Packers, and a career-high 146-tackle season led to a five-year, $50 million contract to bring him back. While he produced in 2022 and 2023, he missed a handful of games due to injury and was cut.
Once released and signed by the 49ers to act as Greenlaw’s replacement (Greenlaw tore his Achilles in Super Bowl LVIII), Campbell ripped the Packers on social media.
— Kevin Zimmerman
