3 Reasons Eagles should be slightly hesitant about drafting Nakobe Dean

The Eagles won’t be asking Dean to be solely a pass rusher.

Before we go any further, let’s give Nakobe Dean his credit. He’s a phenomenal talent. He’s definitely worthy of a first-round selection. You can argue the Georgia Bulldogs don’t hoist the College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy without him.

Dean is a Unanimous All-American, the Butkus Award winner, and a First-team All-SEC nod. None of that has happened by accident, but even though we’ve seen him bend and get skinny while constantly playing in the opposing team’s backfield, one has to believe that won’t happen as often at the next level.

Perhaps you’ve noticed, Jonathan Gannon can be allergic to attacking with his linebackers. We rarely see a blitz from Philly’s defense. More often than not, outside linebackers in the 4-3 scheme, whether they be on the Eagles defense or anywhere else in the league, are asked to cover, especially when teams put four pass catchers on the field, whether that be four wideouts or three wide receivers and a tight end.

When that happens, as you know, we see the defenses take a linebacker off of the field. That means the guys at the second level have to cover more.

Don’t read what hasn’t been written. Dean made plays versus the pass too. Five pass deflections and two brilliant interceptions during the 2021 college football season prove that, but his game will have to change some at the next level. The question is whether or not what we saw Dean do in the Dawg’s system translates to what Gannon does in his scheme. You can make arguments for why it does and doesn’t. That also leads to more questions about what we saw in 2021.