Nakobe Dean could be the linebacker that makes the Giants' defense Ravens-esque under new coordinator Martindale
Nakobe Dean of the Georgia Bulldogs in the second half against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Sanford Stadium on October 2, 2021 in Athens, Georgia. Credit: Getty Images/Todd Kirkland
INDIANAPOLIS — The Ravens have had an almost uninterrupted string of remarkably productive linebacker play for most of this century, dating to Ray Lewis and including Jamie Sharper, Bart Scott and C.J. Mosley. Yes, those players were talented and special, but they were helped by a philosophy that utilized them in creative and aggressive ways.
It’s no surprise, then, that a young player such as Nakobe Dean from the University of Georgia was drawn to them.
"They’re somebody I watched and studied going through my time and development becoming a linebacker," Dean said on Friday.
Linebacker hasn’t been just a position on those Ravens defenses. It has been an identity.
And now it will be the Giants’ identity, too.
With Don "Wink" Martindale making the move from long-time defensive coach and coordinator in Baltimore to the top general of the Giants’ defense, he brings with him that Ravens playbook, attitude and philosophy.
"We like to attack," Martindale said in an interview for Giants.com shortly after his hiring. "Pressure breaks pipes on these offenses. I just don’t want to sit back and say, ‘OK, let’s see what you’ve got.’ I want them to sit back and see what we have."
What he doesn’t have is a linebacker who can make it all work — at least not yet.
With Blake Martinez coming back from ACL surgery and, perhaps of more concern to the Giants right now, costing them more than $14 million in salary- cap space in 2022, there is no player on the current roster who seems suited to that role that Lewis, Scott and Mosley played in Baltimore.
There are, though, some at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis who might.
Dean is one of them, a player who is a natural leader, an intuitive decision-maker and enough of an athlete to make plays all over the field.
"When you talk about the center of your defense and having that intelligence, the toughness, the leadership, he’s got all that stuff in spades," NFL Draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said. "He can cover. You see him mirror backs. He’s a real crafty blitzer. In my notes, I wrote that this guy does everything fast. There’s nothing he does that isn’t fast."
Dean is projected as a mid-to-late first-rounder and won’t be participating in workouts at the Combine. But if the Giants trade back from the fifth or seventh overall picks, he would bring better value.
The Giants have not drafted a linebacker in the first round since Carl Banks in 1984. Baltimore, by contrast, has taken six in 28 total first-round picks since 1996.
The one thing Dean lacks is size. He’s 6 feet, 225 pounds.
"He’s a top-10 player for me, but I know in talking to a lot of teams, they’re obsessed with trying to find the longer, rangier, off-the-ball linebackers," Jeremiah said. " . . . I think some of that kind of dings Nakobe because he doesn’t have that size and length."
There are players who fit that mold in this draft class and at this Combine, including Utah’s Devin Lloyd (6-3, 235) and Penn State’s Brandon Smith (6-4, 254). But that might not be the mold the Giants are looking to cast from these days.
"Turn on the tape," Dean said when asked about his lack of size.
Anyone who does will see a guy who makes plays and leads a defense.
They’ll see what Dean saw when he started refining his position by pulling up tape of old and current Ravens games, absorbing a mentality that has migrated north to the Giants.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
