PHILADELPHIA — Maybe Nakobe Dean was fired up playing second team, but the Philadelphia Eagles rookie linebacker made sure to make an impact in his first game as a pro.
Dean played 24 snaps in his first game for the Eagles, all in the first half. The rookie led the Eagles with five tackles when he started, which didn’t paint the full picture of his performance. A terror against the run, Dean was on the court for eight made-for-run plays – and came away with four tackles.
If Dean wanted to make sure he was noticed for his game on the court, he passed this exam.
“He flies everywhere and he’s always alert, so you just have to know him and know his work ethic and know how hard he works,” said Eagles defensive tackle Jordan Davis, who used his huge frame to prepare Dean to finish the game. “I think it’s going to be something special.”
Dean only rushed the passer on two snaps and was only targeted once (a completion for seven yards), but his performance against the run is why the Eagles drafted him in the first place . Sure to be a first-round pick ahead of the April draft, reports of a chest injury prompted the Eagles – and 31 other teams – to pass him twice. The Eagles couldn’t pass Dean in the third round — and found no pectoral muscle issues either.
It’s in the past now. Dean is focused on the present, trying to earn a starting linebacker job in Week 1. In order to increase his chances of doing so, Dean taught himself a new aspect of the game that he didn’t rely on. not much in Georgia.
“I got better mostly by becoming more likable,” Dean said. “It’s more of an off-pitch thing, being able to talk to people, being nicer to people, being able to open up and see different people’s point of view on things.
“I come from the south, I stayed in the south to play (college) football, and now I’m in the north and I meet people. Of course, I played college football with different types of people, but now there are more people of different Northerners sometimes have a different way of thinking or different ideas that I’ve probably never heard of.
“Just seeing different things, I think as a person, it just opened me up.”
These are the qualities that made Dean so popular coming out of Georgia. The Eagles have high hopes for Dean, who continues to show the second team won’t last long.
“It’s important as a leader to be able to understand people. It’s important to be able to talk to people and understand why they do certain things,” Dean said. “At the moment I’m not leading the team, but I’m improving, trying to learn everything I can and taking it day by day.”
