With Washington still searching for a Mike linebacker, I thought I’d continue to look at the top linebacker prospects in this draft class. Earlier in the week I broke down Utah’s Devin Lloyd, but today I’m moving on to Georgia linebacker Nakobe Dean. Dean is a fun prospect to watch because he’s undersized for the position, standing at 6-foot, 225 pounds, but he plays with a feisty passion that enables him to combat his size restrictions.
When watching Dean, his run defense jumps out. He’s very instinctual and you can see how well prepared he is for each play. He clearly studies film and has a strong idea what play is coming based on formations and motions.
On this play, Alabama runs a counter scheme to their left. The right guard pulls to the left side and kicks out the defensive end while the tight end follows behind him and wraps around to try and block Dean. However, as soon as the ball is snapped, Dean spots the pulling guard and charges up to the line of scrimmage. He arrives as the tight end attempts to wrap around, but Dean has his sight set on the running back and easily avoids the tight end's block as he gets there too quickly. He quickly makes contact with the running back and brings him down at the line of scrimmage for no gain.
Thanks to his instincts and film study, Dean knows when he can take a few risks in order to make a big play.
Here, Arkansas pulls the center and left tackle to the right side of the line on a sweep play. Dean anticipates the play from the motion of a receiver into the backfield and knows he can probably take a calculated risk by shooting a gap inside. He knows with the center pulling, he can go under the block of the right guard and get into the backfield quickly. Dean takes his first step before the ball is even snapped, which enables him to get to the line of scrimmage even quicker. He gets there so early the right guard struggles to get off his block on the defensive tackle to pick him up, allowing Dean to use his smaller frame to sneak through the line of scrimmage. He gets skinny and bounces off the guard before penetrating into the backfield. From there he’s able to chase down the running back and make the tackle for no gain.
His ability to read and diagnose plays quickly enables Dean to position himself to take away the intended paths of plays and force running backs to cut their runs back earlier into free defenders.
This time, Arkansas pull both the right guard and right tackle to the left side of the line. Dean again appears to know exactly what play is coming, as he quickly steps up towards the line of scrimmage before the ball is even snapped. By the time the ball is snapped, Dean works around the left tackle and into the backfield, where he knows a pulling guard is going to be. He then gets low and deliberately attacks the inside shoulder of the guard. That takes away the intended path of the running back and allows Dean to also engage with the second puller, who has to come in and block Dean to try and help out the guard. With Dean there so early, the back is forced to cut his run back almost as soon as he secures the hand off. His original path to the left side of the line is completely blown up by Dean and he has to freelance by working to the right side, where Georgia have a number of free defenders around to make the tackle.
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