The Georgia defense had themselves an evening during the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday. The Dawgs bookended the night with an NFL record for defenders taken with five. This mark broke a mark previously held by Miami (2004) and Florida State (2006), but on a night that Bulldog nation was celebrating, one player was notably left out in the deserts of Vegas.
Linebacker Nakobe Dean was the best player on the best defense in the country last season. Yet surprisingly, he was not among those selected on this record-breaking evening. Chip Towers was on with Jon Chuckery earlier this month illustrating how he was flying under the radar throughout this process.
"He's the consummate middle linebacker, but you're going to have questions about his size," Towers said, "He's built more like a tailback or a fullback more than he is a traditional linebacker."
Coming in under six feet and only 219 pounds, the Nakobe Dean is certainly on the smaller side of linebackers. That, however, is the only real knock.
"He has exceptional speed and then exceptional quickness. And when I say quickness, I mean quick in mind. He majored in engineering at Georgia," Towers said, "And not only that, he did it as an SEC All-Academic guy, so he's extremely intelligent."
Edge rusher Travon Walker started the night off as the first overall pick (another NFL record that the Bulldogs tied that evening, but I digress), followed by big men Jordan Davis and Devonte Wyatt, linebacker Quay Walker, and the heavy hitter Lewis Cine to finish the night off.
These were all very good picks, no doubt, but the anchor for that defense was clearly Dean. "He was unquestionably the leader of that defense," Towers said, "All you have to do is look back at that play in the National Championship game when Channing Tindall doesn't cover the right guy, Nakobe Dean tore him a new one."
His leadership certainly had an impact in that moment because Tindall was in the backfield on the very next play.
Yes, there are questions about Nakobe Dean's size. That didn't discourage him from being the best player on the National Championship defense, and it certainly won't discourage him here.
