As he enters a pivotal season, Eagles’ Nakobe Dean takes a key step toward his return from a foot injury

Nakobe Dean’s first true winter came at an ironic time.

The Eagles linebacker spent his first NFL offseason in his native Mississippi, but has remained in the area the last few months as part of his recovery from a Lisfranc foot injury that required surgery and left him in a walking boot last year.

Most 23-year-olds aren’t attuned to the dropping temperature and the humidity spike that typically precedes a rainy day or a snowstorm in the Philadelphia area, but Dean’s healing foot forecasted the dreary days that came.

“It was definitely cold,” Dean said. “And when you have surgery, it gets to raining and your foot starts aching and everything, so I’m glad I got past that.”

Out of the walking boot and hosting a youth football camp in Pitman, N.J., on Saturday, Dean’s immersion into the area that surrounds the NovaCare Complex and the recovery process that necessitated it have reached significant checkpoints. The 2022 third-round pick told The Inquirer the date when he’ll be 100% cleared for football activity is fast approaching, describing his return as “not weeks” away, but rather a matter of days.

Dean participated in seven-on-seven drills during a spring practice open to the media on Thursday, an important step toward his return from the injury suffered last November.

“I’m toward the end right now, the very end,” Dean said. “I have a date, I won’t give you the date, but it’s very soon.”

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Dean was held out of seven-on-seven drills during the team’s first practice open to the media on May 22. Instead, the former Georgia standout did wind sprints on the sideline during the session, but he got limited reps during Thursday’s practice, the penultimate workout before the team’s mandatory minicamp next week.

“I was itching to get out there,” Dean said. “But there’s a long time to the season, so there’s no reason to rush it. But it felt great to be out there with the guys getting those reps and continuing to learn the new defense with [new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio].”

Dean suffered two foot injuries last year, missing four games early in the season with a right foot injury and then going back on season-ending injured reserve four games later with a Lisfranc sprain in his left foot.

He said his injuries may have been related to him changing from one model of cleats to another for the first time since his college career and noted that he’d be going back to the model he used during college next season.

“Nobody truly knows, but I did, for the first time since I got to college ball, change my cleats,” Dean said. “… I just changed to something that my foot wasn’t used to.”

Dean is fast approaching a pivotal third season with the Eagles, which starts with a battle for one of the team’s starting linebacker spots this summer. He entered last season as a Week 1 starter at the forefront of a thin linebacking corps despite playing just 34 defensive snaps as a rookie, but injuries cost him time during training camp and sidelined him for all but five games during the season.

This year’s defense, led by Fangio, will raise the stakes for Dean along with the group of other Georgia products who have joined him on the Eagles roster the last few seasons. Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, and Dean are expected to step into bigger roles compared to last year, something Dean said the group has discussed this offseason.

“We always have real conversations with each other about ball,” Dean said. “We always have real conversations with each other about how the city is looking out for us and our personal goals, our goals for the team, or expectations for ourselves and for each other. … There ain’t [nothing] that we’d be scared to tell each other. If we’re [talking nonsense], then we’ll tell each other. So of course we talk about how big of a year it is for us coming up.”

This year, he’ll be vying for one of two major off-ball linebacker roles in Fangio’s system, which typically employs a slot cornerback instead of a third linebacker. The Eagles signed veteran Devin White in free agency and have given him the majority of the first-team snaps during organized team activities along with Zack Baun, another free-agent addition who can play as an inside and outside linebacker. Oren Burks and fifth-round rookie Jeremiah Trotter Jr. also joined the team this offseason and figure to challenge Dean for playing time, something he said he welcomes.

“They’re supposed to do that,” Dean said when asked about the front office adding so many new faces to his position. “It’s their job. Our job is to go out there and play, and the coaches’ job is to play the best players. ... Whenever they bring in somebody, you can never be partial to it.”

“And the young guy, Trot, I’m pouring myself into him,” Dean added. “You know you’re on a good team when the vets are trying to teach the rooks how to take their job, and I feel like that is the Eagles’ culture.”

» READ MORE: Jeremiah Trotter Jr. carries on legacies of father and late mother into the NFL

Dean’s first camp in the area, organized with the help of his mother, Neketta, is one of the several community events the linebacker has held since getting drafted No. 83 overall in 2022. Dean also will be launching a community engagement and educuation organization called Kind Hearts Foundation later this year.

“Everything that I do in the community since I’ve been here, it’s to put down a foundation and set it up the right way,” Dean said. “It definitely means a lot to my mother also, who was the one who instilled giving back to the community in me at a young age. My whole family, that’s all we do, give back to the community and pour ourselves into them.”