While most of the attention in the Land of Cheese is focused on what the Green Bay Packers’ offense will look like, the defense deserves plenty of attention too.
Joe Barry’s group was solid in 2021 and really came together in the playoffs against the San Francisco 49ers despite the loss. Now they have vacancies that they need to fill in the offseason. If they look towards the draft, Nakobe Dean could be a solution at linebacker.
Dean led a Georgia defense that stifled opponents at a historic level in 2021 en route to a National Championship victory over Alabama. He’s projected to go somewhere late in the first round. If he falls to the Packers, it could be a perfect match.
There’s no guarantee that the Packers bring De’Vondre Campbell back, given their salary cap woes. If they opt to bring other pieces back outside of Campbell, inside linebacker becomes a huge priority.
Logic says the Packers’ front office should do everything possible to bring back Campbell after he turned in an All-Pro season as a free-agent signing in 2021. Still, Green Bay is cash-strapped, and Campbell will be due a massive payday. He can’t be blamed if he doesn’t give the Packers a discount.
The cheapest way to address the gap that would leave would be through the draft, and Dean brings a lot to the table.
Dean is one of the best tacklers in this draft class, and he has great speed to match it. Some pundits have questioned his size and whether or not he will project better as a weak-side linebacker. Either way, you make it work when it’s a player of his caliber. His size shouldn’t be a major concern given all the other intangibles he brings to the table.
Via Audacy, NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah has an interesting comparison for Dean.
“Nakobe Dean is one of my favorite players in this whole draft,” Jeremiah said. “He, to me, is the toughest one to kind of slide in with a team.
“When you look at the league trend, everybody’s trying to find the taller, longer, kind of rangier off-the-ball linebackers. If you think about the Fred Warners, the Darius Leonards — that’s kind of where the league has trended.
“Here you’ve got this guy Nakobe Dean who’s not real big, he’s not real long, but I don’t care. He’s just too good of a football player. He reminds me so much of (former New Orleans Saints linebacker) Jonathan Vilma when I was a young scout and he was coming out of Miami. I think this guy’s a stud.”
Dean is certainly not comparable to Campbell in terms of size and style of play. But Green Bay doesn’t need someone cut from the same cloth, although that’d be great given what Campbell could do in Barry’s defense. Even if Campbell returns to the Packers, there’s a possibility to double-down and take Dean anyways. Two different inside linebackers that excel in different ways would have Barry even more fired up, if that’s possible.
As for the scouting breakdowns of Dean, they all read very similarly. The Draft Network cut right to it in their evalution.
Nakobe Dean won the 2021 Butkus Award as the nation’s best linebacker. He is a very good reactive athlete with regard to quickness and agility. He affects the passing game in a variety of ways. He can blitz inside and demonstrates very good closing quickness to the quarterback. He gets good depth in his zone drops while also showing the ability to cover running backs with ease. In the run game, he is very instinctive in the box. His team-leading TFL number speaks to the downhill, instinctive, and decisive effort he plays with.
His ability to potentially shift around different linebacker spots makes him even more attractive to a team like Green Bay that loves versatility.
Elgton Jenkins was drafted by the Packers in part because he can play anywhere on the offensive line and do it very well. Davante Adams has had a ton of success for various reasons, but one is that he can line up anywhere on the field and beat the man across from him. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the slot, on the outside, or somewhere in between, he constantly wins his matchups. If Dean has that flexibility, it makes him an even more attractive option.
Many will salivate over the dream of Green Bay selecting a wide receiver in the first round. In past drafts, every time it appeared they would zig, they always ended up zagging. In large part, it’s worked out for the better. Their last six first-round picks were Kenny Clark, Jaire Alexander, Rashan Gary, Darnell Savage, Jordan Love, and Eric Stokes. It’s an extraordinary list considering that four of those players were picked significantly later in the first round.
Dean oozes potential. He has future star written all over him. If you expect Green Bay to finally take a stab at a receiver in the first round, that’s fine. But don’t be surprised if they zag and go for Dean if he’s on the board.
