Georgia Film Room: Nakobe Dean Has Roquan Smith Written All Over
Nakobe Dean played in limited time during his freshman season. Now, heading into year two in the Georgia defense he's not only calling the defense but is expected to play almost every down. He entered the University of Georgia with tremendous expectations, and so far he's done nothing but lived up to them.
He's got every skillset you need to be a modern NFL linebacker, and there's a reason we've compared him to Roquan Smith. He plays exceptionally sound in his reads and gaps. He has the ability to pursue the football from sideline to sideline. And most importantly, in today's game of football, he possesses the ability to cover, which will allow him to be a three-down linebacker at the next level. Oh, and he shows signs of being a developed blitzer when all is said and done.
He had just 25 tackles in his freshman season, but considering he played the overwhelming majority of his snaps on 3rd downs only, there's reasonable expectations for him to explode on the stat sheet this fall.
Here's the full film breakdown of Dean:
Instincts
It's really something you can't teach. The ability to identify what the offense is attempting to do as quickly as possible. All great linebackers have it, and it comes naturally. Dean is going to get to a lot of places on the football field first because he's got elite quickness and top-end speed, but what separates this young man is he's oftentimes the first to move. The first to identify and react.
Thunder in the pads
Some call it play strength, but to me, that's a different discussion. To me, play strength is the ability to attack and shed blockers, and Dean certainly has that. But when I talk about thunder in the pads, it's something that you see when he arrives at the ball carrier. A shear rocking of the opponent, when mass is moved where it doesn't want to go. Nearly every time Dean arrives at the ball carrier they certainly feel it.
Coverage ability
When you're good enough at something to force your coaching staff to pull a player like Monty Rice off the field on 3rd & longs, you've got something special. That's exactly what happened in 2019. Dean was inserted on 3rd downs to provide a level of coverage ability that is rare for a freshman linebacker of his size. He has great zone principles and can run with any back in the conference. The only thing I see from the tape that could improve are the ball skills. There's not a ton of ball production from his freshman tape. It's something that he's likely going to improve upon because he's consistently in phase as a coverage defender, it's just about finishing at this point.
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