There were some surprises who fell out of the 1st round on Thursday. Few were more prominent than Nakobe Dean. He played on the best defense in the entire country last season at Georgia and was arguably its best player. He finished with the second-most tackles (72), second-most sacks (6), most tackles for a loss (10.5), and third-most interceptions (2) on the team. He was everywhere, and offenses rarely had an answer for him. Now he could end up falling right into the Chicago Bears’ laps.
That is not something the rest of the NFL wants to see happen. Don’t forget this team already has Roquan Smith on the roster, a Pro Bowler in all but name. Adding a talent like Dean alongside him threatens to create the best combination this team has seen since Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs. What makes it that much more dangerous is the man in charge. Matt Eberflus is a former linebacker himself. He’s coached them for decades in both college and the pros. His list of success stories includes Sean Lee, Anthony Spencer, and Darius Leonard.
The man understands how to turn talented players into stars at that position.
So why did Dean fall? It has nothing to do with personality. He plays hard and displays lots of intelligence for the game. There are no off-the-field issues either. The explanation is rather simple. He’s short. At 5’11, Dean is considered undersized for an NFL linebacker. Teams tend to prefer them to be 6’2 or taller. They think guys at his size either can’t shed blocks by offensive linemen or suffer injury issues.
That is somewhat ironic, considering they’ve seen guys like Stephen Tulloch, Denzel Perryman, Mychal Kendricks, Dre Greenlaw, and Devin Bush have success over the past several years. Lance Zierlein of NFL.com spoke to an NFL scout that compared Dean to Jessie Tuggle, a five-time Pro Bowler for the Atlanta Falcons who was the same size. This is another case of teams overlooking evident football ability just because a guy doesn’t precisely fit the ideal measurables.
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All that matters is he fits what the Chicago Bears want. He’s physical, intelligent, and fast. Eberflus covets speed, and Dean is exactly the sort of guy he would love.
