3 things we'd love to see from the Eagles defense during their first preseason game of 2023

Should we expect to see Nakobe Dean, and if so how will he be deployed?

If you have been paying attention, you're well aware that Nakobe Dean has been criticized for having a disappointing training camp so far. Yeah, some of that is due to him being sidelined with an ankle injury, but even when he was playing, he didn't seem to stand out as much as we hoped and/or expected him to. 

Something worth noting about Dean is, during his time at Georgia, he was most effective when creating backfield penetration and playing sideline-to-sideline. Those aspects of his game won't necessarily show up in training camp, but he'll be deployed once the games count, so no one should spend time worrying.

Desai's defensive philosophy is akin to Vic Fangio's, so there's no way to guarantee if he'll send the blitz or how often he'll do so if he does. It's probably safe to assume he won't put a ton on tape in the preseason.

We’ll see Dean’s full potential when and if blitzes are dialed up, but during the preseason, don't expect anything exotic as Philly will be vanilla. That's a wise theory to employ when Philly's first opponent of the regular season is the New England Patriots. 

We want to feel better about Nakobe, but we also like the element of surprise and want defensive schemes to work when it matters. Perhaps the better question is will we even see Dean play? It seems doubtful, so the story here is don't expect to see anything creative.