Player
Nakobe Dean
LB - Eagles
Nakobe Dean: facts drawn from the play-by-play.
Two depth years, one breakout, and a 2025 line that already exceeds his 2022-23 career combined.
TrendDean regular-season production by year
| Year | G | Tackles | Assists | Sacks | QB Hits | TFL | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2023 | 5 | 18 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 2024 | 15 | 72 | 48 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 1 |
| 2025 | 9 | 30 | 25 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 2 |
Sacks per season - emerging as a blitzer
| Season | Sacks |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 0 |
| 2023 | 0 |
| 2024 | 3 |
| 2025 | 4 |
Dean was a 3rd-round pick in 2022, behind two first-round LBs taken in the same class. For two seasons he was a 13-game depth piece with 27 tackles, 0 sacks, 0 forced fumbles total.
Then Philadelphia's 2024 LB room opened up, he claimed a starting job, and he never gave it back. 120 combined tackles in 15 games, 9 TFLs, 3 sacks - plus a Super Bowl LIX ring. 2025 has been a partial season (9 games), but the per-game pace is even higher: 6.1 combined tackles/game, 0.44 sacks/game, 0.78 TFLs/game.
The 2022 LB class: he was the 3rd-rounder. Now his pace beats both first-rounders.
Comparison2022 LB class career totals (regular season)
| Player | Pick | G | Tackles | Assists | Sacks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Devin Lloyd | #27 | 63 | 200 | 206 | 3 |
| Quay Walker | #22 | 58 | 222 | 205 | 7 |
| Nakobe Dean | #83 | 37 | 129 | 85 | 7 |
Walker (#22 overall) and Lloyd (#27) were the two LBs taken in the 2022 first round. Dean was the third-rounder.
The career totals favor the first-rounders by counting stats - because they've been on the field. But per game: Walker 3.83 solo tackles/G, Lloyd 3.17, Dean 3.49. Walker's career sack rate is 0.121 per game; Dean's is 0.189. The rate stats tell the story the draft slot didn't predict.
4 sacks in 9 games in 2025 - already a career-high and on pace for 7-8.
MilestoneDean's pressure production by year
| Year | G | Sacks | QB Hits | TFL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2023 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 2024 | 15 | 3 | 6 | 9 |
| 2025 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 7 |
His sack-per-game rate has gone 0.0, 0.0, 0.20, 0.44 across his four seasons. The 2025 rate is double his 2024 breakout rate.
The context: Vic Fangio's defense has been the league's most blitz-creative scheme, and Dean is one of his preferred pieces. He's getting designed pressures on 3rd-and-medium - a role Philadelphia's old defense didn't run. The QB hits number (6 in 9 games) is on pace for 11+, which would be top-5 league-wide among off-ball LBs.
2024-25 combined: 175 tackles, 7 sacks, 16 TFLs, 3 forced fumbles in 24 games.
SplitDean's two-year breakout window
| Stat | 2024 | 2025 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Games | 15 | 9 | 24 |
| Tackles | 72 | 30 | 102 |
| Assists | 48 | 25 | 73 |
| Sacks | 3 | 4 | 7 |
| QB Hits | 6 | 6 | 12 |
| TFLs | 9 | 7 | 16 |
| FFs | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| INTs | 1 | 0 | 1 |
175 combined tackles over 24 games in his breakout window. That's 7.3 per game - high-end starting-LB territory.
The under-the-hood numbers (16 TFLs, 7 sacks, 12 QB hits, 3 FFs) are why the Eagles ran their defense through him in the playoffs. He's not just racking up stops - he's making the negative-yardage stops, the splash plays, the ones that define what off-ball linebackers are paid for in modern football.
7 sacks in 24 games is more than Quay Walker has in 58 games.
Rare2022-LB-class sacks since 2024
| Player | G (24-25) | Sacks |
|---|---|---|
| Nakobe Dean | 24 | 7 |
| Quay Walker | 27 | 4 |
| Devin Lloyd | 31 | 3 |
Over the past two seasons, Dean has more sacks than the two LBs the rest of the 2022 class is benchmarked against. And he has done it in fewer games (he missed half of 2025).
The rate gap is wide: Dean is at 0.292 sacks/G in this window. Walker is at 0.148 (half the rate); Lloyd is at 0.097. The 'super-late first-round value' draft narrative that everyone wrote about Dean in 2022 - it turned out to be correct, just a couple of years delayed.
His 2 forced fumbles in 9 games already tie his cumulative career total entering 2025.
AnomalyForced fumbles by season
| Year | G | FFs |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8 | 0 |
| 2023 | 5 | 0 |
| 2024 | 15 | 1 |
| 2025 | 9 | 2 |
1 forced fumble across his first three seasons. 2 in the first 9 games of 2025.
Forced fumbles are usually a function of opportunity (how many tackles you make near the runner's strike point) and intent (whether you're trained to swipe at the ball). Dean's role change - more LOS responsibility, more pursuit angles, more cleanup tackles on RB contact - is generating both. It's the kind of stat that looks random in a 9-game sample, but trends with the bigger pattern of him being the player Vic Fangio asks to make impact plays.
FanIQ answers any NFL stats question with receipts, on your phone.
Get FanIQ freeGet it on Google Play