Eagles' Nakobe Dean: Big Preseason Play Was More Than a Highlight
PHILADELPHIA – He shot a gap. Simple as that. Except it wasn’t.
It was a play made at high speed, a cobra strike, and it made a fan base breathe a bit easier when it comes to Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean in Thursday's 18-18 preseason tie with the Cleveland Browns at Lincoln Financial Field.
The play could have turned out differently. When Dean hit the gas and did about 60 miles per hour through a split in the offensive line of the Browns, he looked like he might overrun the play.
Instead, he thrust out an arm in the exact area where running back John Kelly was trying to tuck away the handoff.
Kelly had no time to secure the ball with Dean faster than a quick breath there to knock it loose at the 2-yard where teammate K’Von Wallace pounced on it to thwart the Browns’ first offensive possession of the game.
“I saw the guard block down, saw how he came off and I knew it was a run,” Dean said in the locker room. “Shot the gap, had the instinct to shoot the gap and make a play.”
Dean walked off the field showing some emotion, but mostly under control, and into a hearty hand-slap from coach Nick Sirianni on the sideline.
“He’s our guy, and excited for him that he was able to get out there and not being able to play last game and go out there and make a game-changing play,” Sirianni said. “That’s why we drafted him. That’s what we anticipate him being. We’re going to need him to do that to play like we want to play on defense.”
Dean is used to making plays of impact from his days at the University of Georgia. He has yet to make them in the NFL … yet.
He’s only in his second season, but having just played 34 defensive snaps as a rookie and then injured an ankle during training camp that cost him some practice time, there was some concern. There still is, but it was encouraging to see Dean make a play such as that.
It was also good to see him display the leadership he showed at Georgia, something fellow linebacker Zach Cunningham touched on afterward. Cunningham lined up with Dean in the starting lineup.
“He definitely made me feel more comfortable out there, too, his leadership on the defense and us talking back and forth and communicating, it felt good,” said Cunningham, who signed with the Eagles on Aug. 6.
Dean said a big part of his on-the-job training on Thursday was about wearing the communication device inside his helmet to hear the words of defensive coordinator Sean Desai then spit them out to the other 10 players on defense.
“It felt good to play out there with the guys, to hear the calls from the side,” said Dean, who did not lay in the preseason opener against the Baltimore Ravens because he had only returned from his ankle injury just 48 hours before that game.
“That was the biggest thing, to get the calls from the side and being able to communicate with everybody and making sure the communication was good and getting some physical contact,” he said, adding that the communication was “cool.”
Even cooler was the play he made and the three tackles he made in 17 defensive snaps. It is something he can build on as the season opener gets closer.
Ed Kracz covers the Philadelphia Eagles for SI's EaglesToday.
Please follow him and our Eagles coverage on Twitter at @kracze.
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