BEREA, Ohio — Coming from Indianapolis, Eagles defense coordinator Jonathan Gannon brought with him an acronym that governs his defense: HITS.
Hurry.
Intensity.
Snack.
smarts
On Thursday, just before the Eagles’ first practice with the Browns, Gannon was asked which part of this principle is usually the last thing rookies pick up. He didn’t hesitate.
“Intensity because you can’t do it,” Gannon said. “Intensity is the last piece of the puzzle, so to speak. If we’re talking about how we measure that, full tackle to the ground and hitting.
“So we really emphasized that in the last game and the next two games. That shows.”
So it wasn’t too surprising that a week ago, Nakobe Dean shone in the Eagles’ first preseason game.
After a relatively quiet practice camp, the Eagles third-round linebacker had an active evening against the Jets, finishing with five tackles, including four solo tackles. Dean didn’t do anything spectacular, but he looked solid in game action. He looked like the guy who occupied the middle of the nation’s top college football defense in 2021.
“I expect all of our linebackers to hit the ball when it’s between tackles,” Gannon said. “It’s a linebacker’s job to hit the ball. So I really thought so – and in practice you can see that, but again, it’s not flat out and flat out. But I wasn’t surprised at all by how Nakobe played.”
And so it wasn’t surprising that Dean had an active first practice session against the Browns on Thursday.
Gannon says before a newbie comes to them they have a pretty good sense of where they are mentally and that determines how much they give them right away. In the case of Dean, the engineering major who one day wanted to go to medical school, they didn’t hold back. He’s been learning the MIKE and WILL positions since he’s here.
The Eagles would be comfortable playing him at both.
But all of this raises a really unique problem for the Philadelphia Eagles: They have too many linebackers. As strange as it may sound, the team that’s been out there with Eric Wilson, Nate Gerry and others in recent seasons is really looking deep into the position in 2022. And it won’t be easy to find out who’s playing.
TJ Edwards was the Eagles’ top linebacker at camp and is the most likely player to earn the green dot on his helmet, indicating he communicates from coach to player. But then free agent Kyzir White impressed, and so did third-round pick Davion Taylor, a third-year.
So what role does Dean play in all of this?
On Thursday, Gannon didn’t rule out some sort of rotation at the linebacker position. That would make sense because all four of these players have different strengths.
“You saw it earlier [last] year we did (spun) that for a little bit and then it settled down for a little bit,” Gannon said. “It really comes down to who our best people are and what we’re trying to do this week, what our favorable matchups are.
“Also you have to think about who calls the defense, the green dot, because you don’t want that guy being substituted out by the ton. We did it, but you want – 80% of the snaps you’d love to just say it, and that’s what gets ripped. You don’t want to sit there all the time in certain situations.
“I think that process will clear up over the next few weeks. But it’s valuable to have several people who can step in and play really good football for us and help us win games.”
Before training camp, I really thought Dean would have the ability to win the green dot and earn the most playing time of any linebacker on the team. To be clear, I’m still very optimistic about Dean and was really encouraged by his first performance of preseason.
But maybe I underestimated these three other players. Edwards was fantastic. White will end the long line of free agent linebacker disappointments. And Taylor was healthy and doesn’t look like the lost child he was as a rookie a few years ago.
Still, Dean will play. He was the quarterback for the top college football defense in the world a few months ago, and with two more preseason games to go he’ll be able to show what he’s capable of in live action.
For lack of a better term, Dean is a gamer.
“I love the physicality of the game, the violence and everything that comes with it,” Dean said last Friday. “It was great to get them on full reps.”
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