His best game yet? Nakobe Dean settling into starting role after long wait originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Nakobe Dean filled up the stat sheet in Sunday’s blowout win over the Giants.
The third-year linebacker led the Eagles with 11 tackles and added 4 quarterback hits, 2 sacks and 2 TFLs in the 28-3 win at MetLife Stadium. Many called it the best game of his NFL career.
What did Dean think?
“It was aight,” Dean said on Thursday. “I had two sacks so that’s probably why they are saying that. We just gotta continue to get better week-to-week. That’s the only thing I’m focused on: Getting better. We continue to get better, not really listening to what people have to say.
“If I live by their compliments, I’m gonna die by their criticism. I’m just gonna focus on getting better and better, week-to-week and that’s it. This defense is getting better. That’s it.”
Through six weeks of the 2024 season, Dean has had some ups and downs as the Eagles’ starting middle linebacker. But even if Sunday’s game against the Giants wasn’t his best in the NFL, it had to be darn close.
And after waiting two years to really settle into his role as a starter in Philly, he’s enjoying every minute of this.
“I love it. That’s why I came in the league,” Dean said. “That’s why the Eagles drafted me, to be able to be a starting middle linebacker on a good defense. We just gotta continue to get better. I feel great and I just thank God. Thank God to be able to be out here and roll.”
As a third-round pick in 2022, Dean was behind T.J. Edwards and Kyzir White on the Super Bowl team and basically had a redshirt season. The Eagles tabbed him as their starter for the 2023 season but Dean suffered some serious foot injuries early in the year and his season was cut short.
The plan wasn’t to hand him the starting MIKE job in 2024. In fact, the Eagles brought in former first-round pick Devin White as a free agent. But Dean beat him out in training camp and White has since been released and is now with the Houston Texans.
Dean has started all six games this season after starting just four games last year before being shut down on IR. After being a major piece of a championship team at Georgia, it hasn’t been easy for him to wait his turn.
“The wait was probably the hardest part,” he said. “For me, coming in the league, I felt like I was ready to go and play every snap and then it just didn’t roll that way my rookie year. Second year, come in and was about to get the role and it got cut short. So this year, to finally get it going, I got a lot of people hitting me up like, ‘Finally, finally.’ It’s like, ‘Yep.’ To be able to just roll, I feel like as long as I’m on the field, I can make plays.”
When he was at Georgia, Dean showed an ability to blitz that we hadn’t really seen in the NFL level until Sunday, when he picked up the first two full sacks of his NFL career.
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio sent Dean on a couple of sim pressures and the 231-pound linebacker showed off an ability to get to the quarterback. Dean hasn’t had a ton of opportunities to rush the passer this year so he wanted to make sure he made the most of them against the Giants and he did.
Rushing as a linebacker is a bit unique.
“You always gotta have a plan,” Dean explained. “Most of the time, you’ve got a specific gap to hit. You just don’t know if the running back is going to pick you up, if it’s going to be the guard, the center, they’re going to slide down, they’re going to slide left, they’re going to slide right. It all kind of goes in when it comes to blitzing.
“They always say have a plan. When I had my first blitz, I had a plan if the center slid to me, which he did. Or if the guard would have came down on me or if he opened up and I got the running back. You just have to have different things prepared.”
This season, Dean has been ferocious when he’s been able to come downhill. He had had some big hits and picked up those two sacks on Sunday. But he has to be better in space and Fangio said as much publicly after the win over the Browns.
Against the Browns, there was one play in particular that stood out. Dean ended up in a 1-on-1 situation with Deshaun Watson, who pump-faked Dean off the ground and ran around the edge for a gain of 6 yards. Even though Fangio said that’s a tough responsibility, he said it’s an area Dean needs to improve.
And Dean agreed, especially with the assessment of that play in particular.
“I gotta close. I gotta close to the inside hip,” Dean said. “I don’t need to jump. And that’s it. The quarterback’s pumping and I gotta make that play. When I’m out there, he expects me to make every tackle. So that’s it. He expects me to make every tackle. I expect to make every tackle. I know what I gotta do, I know I gotta get better. I don’t care if it’s in space against anybody, I gotta make the play.”
Fangio has a blunt style that could possibly rub some players the wrong way but Dean appreciates it. He doesn’t need any sugarcoating from the defensive coordinator. He appreciates the direct approach.
And that attitude extends into player-to-player interactions between Dean and Zack Baun. Those two earned the Eagles’ starting linebacker jobs this summer and are feeling comfortable playing next to each other. They also feel comfortable telling each other how it is.
They have an understanding and are giving the Eagles solid linebacker play.
“Nakobe is a really smart football player and has been playing inside backer for a lot longer than I have,” Baun said. “So I lean on him for a lot of different things and he’s the leader of this defense. He knows this defense and he’s vocal.”
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