Nakobe Dean explains approach on settling into NFL, meshing with Eagles locker room

It’s always tough being the new kid on the block, but trail and error has forced Philadelphia Eagles’ third-round draft pick Nakobe Dean to try and get to know everyone in the organization this offseason. Though, it’s something he was forced to experience as a lonely freshman at Georgia, Dean revealed.

“I remember my first semester freshmen year, I didn’t know anybody,” Dean said about his early days in Athens. “Like, I was going to the training room every day. I know nobody name, so my thing is trying to get to learn everybody’s name. I’m just asking everybody their name. You know, hopefully give me a week or two, I’ll have everybody’s name down.”

He wasn’t always the type of guy to approach everyone, though. A shy, 18-year-old Nakobe Dean packing his bags from Horn Lake, Mississippi to the University of Georgia figured he’d get through college with his head down and let his play on the field do the talking.

“I wasn’t a big social guy, as far as talking. So, one of the reasons I went to Georgia is because I knew I had to open up more,” Dean said. “I knew me going six hours away from home where I don’t know nobody, and no family lived near me. I knew I was going to have to talk, and open up a little bit more to teammates, and social life. Things like that. That was one of the reasons I did that.”

Though his social life expanded, so did his numbers on the stat sheet. In three seasons in Athens, Dean played in 39 games, totaling 168 career tackles in that span. He also proved himself to be a highly disruptive player outside of bringing ball carriers down, with 13.5 career tackles for loss, seven and a half sacks, two interceptions, ten pass deflections, and three forced fumbles over his tenure in red and black.

“It’s work,” Dean said about his first impressions of the Eagles locker room. “You come in, you got to work. You got to put everybody’s you’re here to work. You do what the team needs to win, so it is what it is.”

With immense accolades such as the reigning SEC defensive player of the year, Butkus Awards winner, a first team All-American, among others, the Eagles feel as though they’ve got a steal with Dean as late as they did.