Prediction: Rookie Nakobe Dean, not A.J. Brown, might have the biggest impact among new Eagles

Seldom do general managers of playoff teams overhaul their roster to the degree that Howie Roseman remade the Eagles’. He saw the need, and he did it.

Which newcomers will have the greatest impact right away? The answer might surprise you.

With all due respect to A.J. Brown and Haason Reddick, Dean, a rookie, will be a the defensive playmaker Jonathan Gannon is looking for. It will take time. Dean might see only 20% of the defensive snaps in the first few games, but he will earn more and more playing time as the warts on T.J. Edwards and Kyzir White resurface.

Edwards and White certainly belong in the NFL, and they’ll play major roles with these Eagles, but Dean is going to be a star. He’ll force fumbles. He’ll make sacks. He’ll cover backs and tight ends. If Gannon’s defense is to be dynamic, then Dean will make it so. Philadelphia fans will soon worship him the way they worship Bergey and Seth and Chuck.

Dean won the Butkus Award, was the best defender on perhaps the best defense in modern college football history, and he is two semesters shy of completing a mechanical engineering degree. He’s 5-foot-11, and he didn’t do much predraft work because of a strained pectoral muscle, which might have cost him a first-round grade. Sorry, but I love football players who makes plays against the best competition on the biggest stage.

This might be wishful thinking. Like the rest of Philadelphia, I might be suffering from Linebacker Deficiency Syndrome; it’s been a long time since the Birds had a stud at the second level.

But I was amazed at this kid’s play at Georgia, and I think Dean will go down as one of the Eagles’ all-time draft steals. The Eagles haven’t drafted a linebacker with this much upside since Jeremiah Trotter. Like Dean, Trotter was a third-round pick whose injury issues (knee) cost him on draft day.

Trotter went to four Pro Bowls.

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I love the A.J. Brown trade. He’s perfect for the Eagles’ purposes in every way: productive, strong, polished, and he’s an outstanding leader.

That said, we’re talking about impact. Brown has averaged about 60 catches, 1,000 yards, and eight touchdowns his first three seasons, but he did that on a team that featured Derrick Henry, the NFL’s best running back, and Ryan Tannehill, a Pro Bowl passer. He’ll have neither in Philadelphia. He’ll be double-teamed constantly, and he’ll suffer from the perpetual deficiencies of Jalen Hurts: impatience and inaccuracy. Brown won’t catch 60 balls this season, and he won’t hit 1,000 yards, and he won’t see the end zone eight times.

Even as his statistics wane, he’ll still have impact. He’ll make life easier for second-year star DeVonta Smith and tight end Dallas Goedert. He’ll help the running game. He’ll maximize Hurts’ potential. He’ll be worth the four-year, $100 million deal, but it’s simply not possible for him to live up to expectations.

Reddick collected 23½ sacks over the last two seasons, but he has every chance of being labeled a free-agent bust by the end of the season.

He’s joining a defense unfamiliar to him. A defense without a defined identity. He’ll be playing an undefined, swing linebacker/defensive end position. He’ll constantly be chipped by running backs and tight ends. His teammates on the line all have issues: tackle Fletcher Cox is fading, tackle Javon Hargrave can’t handle double teams, rookie tackle Jordan Davis is a run stopper with conditioning issues, and end Brandon Graham is a 34-year-old who missed most of 2021 with a ruptured Achilles tendon.

Like Brown, Reddick’s presence will make things easier for his linemates, which carries a measure of impact. By no means is his three-year, $45 million deal exorbitant. But there’s a chance that retread end Derek Barnett and Graham each wind up with more sacks than Reddick.

This might sound fatalistic, but there’s not much chance that your center who turns 35 in November and had to have preseason elbow surgery is going to be the same player in 2022 that he was in 2021, when he made his fifth Pro Bowl.

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Whether or not Jason Kelce stays healthy, understand that the Eagles drafted Jurgens, a large, athletic, interior lineman, in the second round this year to harness with Landon Dickerson, an even larger, more athletic second-rounder they took in the 2021 draft. Jurgens’ preseason play was, as times, spectacular. He’s a center, but you don’t keep spectacular players off the field in the NFL, so if the Eagles find themselves with a need at guard ...

Bradberry’s directive this season: Don’t stink. Darius Slay is a star on the other side and Avonte Maddox is solid at nickel corner, so Bradberry, who signed a one-year, $7.25 million deal, will be targeted, and he will be helped. Bradberry, 29, has 10 interceptions over the last three seasons, so he could be the beneficiary of Reddick’s pressure from the edge and Dean’s efficiency at the second level.

First-rounder Davis, the anchor of the Georgia defense in which Dean starred, won’t play much, and won’t have a noticeable impact for a season or two. That’s fine. He’s a long-term project whose 6-foot-6, 336-pound chassis is built to last. ... White led the Chargers with 144 tackles last season, which was his fourth, but that earned the linebacker just a one-year, $3 million deal with the Eagles. ... Eagles coach Nick Sirianni loves fifth-year free-agent receiver Zach Pascal, whom he coached in Indianapolis, so don’t be surprised to see more balls thrown his way than his 37-catch, 472-yard season averages warrant.