Calais Campbell, standing 6 feet 8 inches and weighing over 300 pounds, entered the league as a second-round draft pick from Miami in 2008. His career post-Arizona earned him major national awards such as the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year and an All-Decade team selection, but it was his nine-year tenure in Arizona that laid the groundwork for his Hall of Fame-worthy career.

Campbell, with an impressive 85-inch wingspan, combined exceptional size, leverage, and lateral agility for a five-technique defensive end. He posed a formidable challenge for opponents: impossible for single blockers to move in the running game, yet quick and powerful enough to collapse interior pockets or swat passes at the line of scrimmage.

In 2008, as a rookie, Campbell played a crucial role in Arizona's exciting journey to Super Bowl XLIII. He became the full-time left defensive end in 2009, and his performance gradually shifted from a physical interior disruptor to one of the most versatile and complete defensive linemen in the league. His national recognition came in 2014 when he recorded 7.0 sacks and 15 tackles for loss, earning his first Pro Bowl and Second-Team All-Pro honors. He repeated this success in 2015 with a second Pro Bowl appearance, leading the front seven for a division-winning team with 13 wins.

His early years in Arizona peaked during the 2016 campaign, when Campbell recorded 8.0 sacks, 12 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, and an interception, earning his second Second-Team All-Pro honor. During his first nine seasons in the desert, he accumulated 56.5 sacks and 107 tackles for loss, acting as the defensive leader throughout the franchise's most stable period of success in recent times.

In 2017, Campbell joined Jacksonville, marking a peak in his statistics. He achieved a personal-best 14.5 sacks in his debut season there, received First-Team All-Pro recognition, and was honored as the 2019 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year for his exceptional charitable efforts. He continued to be productive with Baltimore (2020–2022), Atlanta (2023), and Miami (2024), where he surpassed 100 career sacks.

In a storybook reunion, Campbell returned to the desert for the 2025 season, re-joining the Cardinals to provide veteran leadership and interior push for a young defense. Starting all 17 games, the 39-year-old defensive lineman defied Father Time once again by racking up 6.5 sacks and 26 solo tackles. Following that single-year homecoming, Campbell departed once more in 2026 to rejoin Baltimore for another championship push.

Across his ten total seasons wearing a Cardinals jersey, Campbell accumulated 63.0 sacks, 536 combined tackles, and 119 tackles for loss.