When it comes to players on the Philadelphia Eagles who are under the most pressure to succeed, the buck has to stop at Nakobe Dean.
Yes, James Bradberry still exists, and he will forever be the least popular man in Philadelphia even after his contract comes to an end, but at this point, he's a lame duck; if he makes the Eagles roster this fall, which is a big if, he will be gone in 2025 unless he becomes the second-coming of Charles Woodson as a cornerback-to-safety later-career transitional defensive back.
Dean, on the other hand, very much is part of the Eagles' future, or at least could be, assuming he is able to finally put it all together and become the undersized yet overachieving linebacker fans once considered the steal of the 2022 NFL draft when he somehow slipped to the third round.
Standing 5-foot-11, 231 pounds, with 35th percentile arm length and a 15th percentile hand size according to MockDraftable, Dean is basically the opposite of a prototypical NFL athlete for the linebacker or really any position on the field. He can get enveloped in the run game when burley linemen get to the second level, struggle to compete with the bigger tight ends he lands in coverage, and lacks the pure speed to keep up with slot receivers in both zone and man coverage.
And yet, Dean is also a distinctly instinctual player who helped to lead Georgia's defense to some of the best seasons of SEC football fans have seen in years, maybe ever, holding up against the run and the pass while helping to get his fellow Dawgs in the right spot before the ball gets snapped.
Initially drafted by the Eagles at pick 83, Dean played fairly well as a rookie before seeing his second professional season get derailed due to injury last fall, landing on IR with a foot injury after Week 1 before suffering a Lisfranc injury that put him on the shelf once more just before Thanksgiving.
Though Dean was still working back from injury during the spring, with Devin White and Zack Baun taking much of the first-team snaps during mini-camp, if he can prove himself a viable starter in the middle of the defense, either at middle linebacker or on the weakside, the Georgia product could become a fixture of the Eagles' defense not just in 2024 but long-term heading into the future, potentially even beside second-generation folk hero Jeramiah Trotter Jr., who will be the favorite to start at middle linebacker among fans based solely on his Hall of Fame father's pedigree.
Nakobe Dean believes he's up for the challenge with the Eagles
Sitting down with the Eagles' official website to talk about his pivotal third professional season, Dean addressed the elephant in the room head-on, letting fans know that while he hasn't fully filled TJ Edwards' shoes at middle linebacker just yet, he isn't shying away from achieving that goal.
“The mental side is always hard, but we talk about having a dawg mentality all the time, and I feel like it starts with being mentally strong,” Dean told the official Philadelphia Eagles website. “I'm an optimistic realist, so I'm always real about my situation, but I'm always optimistic. So, the only thing I continue to do is work, and everything else will take care of itself.”
Asked about the new additions in the inside linebackers room, with Trotter Jr., White, and Baun all added to the rotation, Dean celebrated their additions, noting that while he isn't going to give up his pursuit of becoming a long-term starter, having quality pieces around him only helps the overall defensive product heading into the regular season.
“We [are] all kind of high-energy guys who love ball, who [are] going to take whatever is thrown at us, and we don't complain about it,” Dean noted. “We're just going to take it for what it is and push through it. We're going to be oak trees and not pine trees. We're going to stand strong in the wind.”
Will Dean be able to get where he wants to be this fall? Will he fully cement himself as the new leader of the Eagles' defense, or at least become a force at weakside linebacker next to a more traditional MLB like Trotter Jr. or White? Only time will tell, but after only appearing in five games last season, he's ready to re-introduce himself to the NFL.
“I know I may have been out of sight, out of mind because of the injuries, so I'm here now,” Dean declared.
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