Eagles Sign Ex 1st-Round Pick; How Soon Can LB Help?
PHILADELPHIA - The NFL has a way of stressing your weaknesses and the Philadelphia Eagles found that out on Sunday during their Week 1 25-20 win at New England.
The team’s starting Mike linebacker Nakobe Dean went down with a foot injury that will cost the second-year pro at least a month of action in the third quarter after amassing seven tackles over 49 defensive snaps.
Dean was officially placed on injured reserve Tuesday, meaning he will miss at least Thursday night’s game against 0-1 Minnesota, as well as upcoming contests at Tampa Bay, vs. Washington, and at the LA Rams.
Because it’s a short week, the Eagles will try to get through with the status quo of Zach Cunningham and Christian Ellis, who replaced Dean against the Pats, and veteran Nicholas Morrow, who was promoted from the practice squad as the roster replacement for Dean.
Taking Morrow’s spot on the PS was Rashaan Evans, a 2018 first-round pick by Tennessee with extensive starting experience for both the Titans and Atlanta Falcons.
Evans, 27, made it from South Florida to South Philadelphia in 24 hours to start a crash course on Sean Desai’s defense before Tuesday’s walkthrough practice.
“Literally yesterday. I was just relaxing,” the sixth-year pro said at his new locker when asked about the Eagles contacting him. “Got a call and it was like ‘Look, want you on the team’ and I was like ‘Sure, let’s do it.
“Got on a plane immediately and the rest is history.”
Although untested coming into the season, Dean is a high-level prospect who was a national champion and a Butkus Award winner in college at Georgia before arriving in Philadelphia as a third-round pick in the 2022 draft.
He spent the 2022 season learning behind veterans T.J. Edwards and Kyzir White and the Eagles expected a lot from him this season from both a production standpoint and as the on-field defensive quarterback, the so-called green dot.
When Dean went down against the Patriots, Ellis was inserted and took over the green dot opposite Cunningham but wasn't all that effective. When Elliss was off the field, however, Philadelphia used safety Reed Blankenship as the defensive communicator so the dominoes with no Dean are vast.
Evans is intriguing because of his pedigree and experience. He’s played in 76 career games, starting 67 of them. He has recorded 476 tackles, 21 tackles for loss, five fumble recoveries, and two interceptions.
Last season, Evans started all 17 games for the Falcons. He made a career-high 159 tackles and added two fumble recoveries. Despite that resume, Evans obviously can’t jump into the deep end of the pool on Sept. 12 after taking the summer off.
“For the five years I’ve been in the league, [I’ve found] you really only get into game shape, maybe midseason where you’re really hitting your stride and at your best,” Evans said. “So whenever that game is, whenever I’m starting, gotta pick up things and learn the playbook and also kinda getting up to speed with things, that’s really gonna be more like a play-to-play thing.”
Evans understands where the bar is set.
“I think I’ve had some good times in the league and at the end of the day, nothing changes about that field,” he said. “The dimensions are always the same. The caliber of play is always at an all-time high. The way these guys play, the standard in which they play football, … I have to be at that level.”
The mini-bye after the Vikings game will allow the Philadelphia defense to reboot if it likes and move to either Morrow or Evans if Desai feels that’s the way to go and while it’s buyer beware on a one-time high-level prospect who was on the street, Evans seems like a worthy roll of the dice for the Eagles.
“I’m gonna leave that up to the teams,” Evans answered when asked why he wasn’t signed until the Eagles came calling. “Teams kinda know the guys that they want. They like certain guys. They basically go with them. For me, I never really take it personally, It’s not an impediment on my game or anything like that.
“I kinda look at it like more of an opportunity for other guys so at the end of the day I’m just really glad that the Eagles saw something in me.”
