Nakobe Dean expects to be full participant at OTAs next week; Eagles don’t anticipate any missed time

Nakobe Dean doesn’t expect to miss any time this offseason, which makes his fall out of the first round to the Philadelphia Eagles at No. 83 even more surprising. Dean faced reports of a pectoral and knee injury causing his draft stock to slide, which was news to him. 

“That was the nerve-wracking part about it, the whole thing,” Dean said early Saturday morning on his fall to the third round. “You know, listening to things that are not true and it’s costing me a lot of money. And just seeing my mama’s face, and for me falling and to hear things like that, that was just the biggest thing.

“But at the end of the day, I’m blessed. I feel like I got picked by a great organization, and I’m ready to work.”

The Eagles didn’t find anything serious with Dean’s pectoral strain, as general manager Howie Roseman said he would be on the field for the start of OTAs next week. Philadelphia doesn’t see any missed time with Dean, who said himself he expects to be a full participant at OTAs.  

“He’s going to be on the field this weekend. We don’t anticipate missed time now,” Roseman said. “He’ll come in here and take a physical, and we’ll double-check all those things.

“I think I called our doctors three, four times to see am I missing something? We brought him in. Am I missing something? Because obviously this guy is way higher on our board, and we were considering taking him at – we talked to him before today because he was a consideration, and that’s what we got.

“I know we exchanged – we get a lot of information on these guys. It isn’t just the Philadelphia Eagles information. We get a lot of information. That’s how this rolls. Teams don’t do this in a vacuum. They do it with other teams because it’s important for these guys to get them right. We’re excited about it.”

Roseman admitted he thought teams shied away from Dean due to his medical issues, causing him to slip two rounds in the draft. The Eagles appeared ready to select Dean in the second round before deciding on Nebraska center Cam Jurgens. 

Dean surely was going to be off the board by the Eagles next pick right? As Roseman revealed — the Eagles got lucky. 

“I feel like we can do great things together,” Dean said on the Eagles taking a chance on him. “Great things as a whole organization, me as an individual and us as a team and as a defense. I always have big goals for myself, have big goals for my team, so I feel like we can do great things, as far as being one of the best defense to ever come through football ever.”