Nakobe Dean Will Miss “Multiple Weeks” With Foot Injury

Nakobe Dean was supposed to be a big part of the Eagles' offense this year. From early on, he was established as one of the starting linebackers. And then they gave him the green dot, meaning he is the guy in charge of relaying the play calls to the rest of the defense when he is on the field. But not they may be without him for a few weeks. Ian Rapoport is reporting he will miss multiple weeks with a foot injury he suffered in Sunday's win over the Patriots.

The news is not too surprising. Nakobe Dean left the game with a foot injury and then was wearing a walking boot after the game. All things considered, it is probably good news. He may be able to avoid going on the IR, and it seems like he will be back within a few weeks, provided there are no setbacks.

But even those few weeks could hurt them. Dean was not exactly playing at a high level before the injury, but there were high hopes coming into the season. he was a dominant force at LB for Georgia. And the Eagles were already light at LB, with just 3 guys, including Dean, on the 53-man roster. After him, they have Zach Cunningham, who played 88% of the snaps on Sunday, and Christian Elliss. Elliss took his place not just as the other LB, but also as the green dot. And the expectation should be he will continue to wear that green dot and starting until Dean can return.

The Eagles do have Ben VanSumeran and Kyron Johnson on the practice squad. They also added former 1st round pick Rashaan Evans to their practice squad following the news. Any of them could be one of the two Practice Squad call-ups on game day. But that would mean the Eagles would have to move either Arryn Siposs or Britain Covey to the 53-man roster because they were the call-ups on Sunday. Going into game day with just 2 active Linebackers would be too risky, so there will have to be some move by Thursday just to have some insurance at Linebacker.

Hopefully, for the Eagles, Nakobe Dean gets back soon. Because even if he does struggle, they are in a bad situation without him on the field.

Well, they won. That is the most important thing. The Chiefs, Bengals, Vikings, and Chargers would gladly trade places with the Eagles right now. Because as bad as it looked, it is better to be 1-0 than 0-1. At the end of the season, people won't be talking about how in week 1 the Eagles looked sloppy and never got a rhythm going. All they will be talking about is if they won enough games to be the one seed in the NFC, or not. And for now, like 15 other teams, they have started the season undefeated. 

With all of that said, man was the game ugly. Dallas Goedert and D’Andre Swift had no impact on the game. Much like how Devonta Smith had no catches in week 1 last season. They scored just 1 TD on offense, and it was in the first quarter. And the defense was getting picked apart across the middle of the field all game long, even if they only gave up 20 points.  

They had to overcome a late fumble and a turnover on downs that gave the Patriots two more chances late. But they held on partly because the Patriots were equally sloppy, and also because the defense made some plays late in the game. Jalen Carter got his first career sack late in the game, to set up a long 3rd down New England couldn’t convert. Then Josh Jobe helped force the incompletion on 4th and sealed the win.  

It was an uncomfortable experience for Eagles fans from the 2nd quarter on. But they still came away with the win. How did they hold on? What can we take away from it? Are there issues with the team that need to be fixed? 

We were told this would be a RB By committee situation. Week 1 was a committee of one though. Kenny Gainwell touched the ball 18 times. !4 carries, and 4 catches. The rest of the RBs touched the ball 4 total times. D’Andre Swift had 1 carry and a catch, and so did Boston Scott. Rashaad Penny was inactive. All we heard all camp was about how great Swift looked. How he would add a whole new dimension to the Eagles’ offense. He barely saw the field.  

Gainwell did look good, but not so good that you could justify him having a monopoly over the touches. Between the rushes and the catches, he averaged just over 4 yards per touch. With a weapon as dangerous as Swift, it is inexcusable to give him so few chances to play. Also, Dallas Goedert had no catches. Devonta SMith was in a similar situation to Swift and Goedert after week 1 last season. So it is not a massive concern yet. But they need to get both guys more involved against the Vikings. 

Now let's turn to a positive. Jalen Carter racked up 7 pressures and a sack in his debut. That is the most pressures by any rookie DT in the last 5 years, per Next Gen Stats. He made his presence felt, even if most of the Eagles pass rush did not. We hear he could make an impact right away. He showed that was the case. And that one sack came at a pivotal point of the game when the Patriots had a chance to go down the field to take the lead.  

He did all of that in just 40 snaps by the way. And fellow Georgia DT, Jordan Davis, also had a huge impact with 6 tackles, .5 sacks, and forced a fumble. There is very good reason to be excited for those two guys as your core DT duo for the next several years.  

The Eagles had 4 straight 3 and outs to close out the first half. The average distance on each of those 3rd down attempts was 10.75 yards. And the average distance in the game overall was 9.25. They were killing themselves with poor execution and play calling on early downs, then further shot themselves in the foot with conservative play calling on 3rd down. Their attempts to convert those 4 3rd downs to close out the first half featured 3 short passes that gained a total of 4 yards, and then a yard run. That is not going to cut it. Especially for a team that felt more than capable of converting long 3rd downs last season.  

They had just 3 third downs that were 5 yards or less, and they converted all 3 of them. There were 6 third downs of 10 yards or more, and they converted only 1 of those.

Sydney Brown never saw the field on defense. He had 0 snaps. Meanwhile, Justin Evans took almost every single snap as the Eagles' second Safety next to Reed Blankenship. The logic with that, is they trust Evans more as deep Safety. They really like Sydney Brown, but they don’t yet trust him to not get beaten deep. The problem is Justin Evans got beat multiple times. Were Evans some guy who never made any mistakes, I would get it. But he is borderline as a starter. Why not just get your best talent on the field? At least give him some snaps. They reduced him to only playing Special Teams. Hopefully that changes going forward.  He is too good to waste like that. 

At the end of the first half, the Eagles got the ball back with 25 seconds left on the clock. Last year this team was elite at scoring at the end of the half. They didn’t even bother this time, in a one-score game. It was weak. Now I get it is just 25 seconds. But they have done it in that little time before. In the 2017 Championship Game vs. the Vikings, they got it back with 29 seconds and went down to get a field goal. It just took 3 passes to get 60 yards and set Jake Elliott up for a FG to go ahead 24-7. 

You have AJ Brown, Devonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert, with Jalen Hurts throwing to them. Yes, the offense was struggling but trust your guys to break out of it. With Elliott, you probably only need to get to the 40-yard line, maybe the 43. We have seen him long FGs with ease. He hit a 56-yarder later in the game. To just let the clock run out, was uncharacteristically cowardly by Sirianni.  

Just how important is getting that week 1 win? 81% of the eventual Super Bowl winners, started 1-0. Since 2002, 75% of teams that started 0-1, missed the playoffs. A win is a win. And if the Eagles go on to continue winning, and win the one seed, no one will be talking about how bad they looked in a week 1 win. The Chiefs, Bengals, and Vikings did not escape week 1 with a win. One of the Bills or Jets will start 0-1.

Yes, we all would prefer if they had looked dominant in week 1. But they didn’t look that way in week 1 last year, and they went on to have a great season.  There was a lot of bad Football played throughout the NFL in week 1. Eagles included. But they won. And despite all the issues we pointed out, the win is all that really matters. If they still look like this after week 3, then we should be concerned. For now, just be happy they survived.