This year’s NFL Draft doesn’t have a ton of premium talent at linebacker. The Sporting News’ Vinnie Iyer has just two going in the first round, and they’re the obvious picks: Devin Lloyd out of Utah and Nakobe Dean from Georgia. Focusing on the latter, the biggest knock against Dean is his size.
But should size be a dealbreaker for an NFL linebacker?
While it has to be factored in, it isn’t the end-all-be-all. Dean in particular was a focal point (alongside Lewis Cine) on a deep and talented Georgia defense. That has to count for something. He had 72 tackles last year and 10.5 tackles for a loss, plus he had a pair of interceptions. Dean’s physicality, discipline, and sideline-to-sideline quickness are all net positives for the linebacker. So who does he compare to in the NFL height-wise?
Nakobe Dean height, weight
Dean is listed at 5 feet 11 inches, 229 pounds. The average height of an NFL linebacker, according to former linebacker Scott Fujita, is 6 feet 2 inches, 245 pounds. by that standard, Dean is undoubtedly undersized coming out of college. He is preceded by some recent picks who are starting to buck that trend.
Devin Bush
Steelers linebacker Devin Bush is a strong comparison for Dean. At 5 feet 11 inches, 234 pounds, the Michigan product received similar criticisms to Dean. Bush has become a productive NFL linebacker, after he picked up 109 tackles as a rookie and logged 70 tackles last year in 14 games. Although Bush hasn’t been quite the same player he was in his rookie year since, he showed flashes of greatness early on.
Workout results
| Drill | Dean | Bush |
| 40-yard dash | 4.74 secs | 4.43 secs |
| Vertical | 41.2 inches | 40.5 inches |
| 20-yard shuttle | 4.32 secs | 4.23 secs |
Bush possesses a touch more speed than Dean, whereas Dean has a slightly higher vertical. That can help a player his size, although Bush’s natural ability and speed is a good indicator as to why he went 10th overall.
Roquan Smith
Roquan Smith is the most recent Georgia linebacker to generate a huge amount of buzz. The eighth overall pick in 2018, Smith is 6 feet 1 inch and 225 pounds. He had a ridiculous 232 tackles in his last two seasons with the Bulldogs, and he was a highly-touted prospect when he entered the draft. Smith has become one of the NFL’s premiere linebackers, logging an absurd 163 tackles last year, tied for 15th in NFL single-season history.
More importantly, Smith has continued to improve with Chicago. While Dean doesn’t have Smith’s supernatural instinct to find the ball, he comes from similar stock.
Matt Milano
At 6 feet 220 pounds, the Bills’ Matt Milano has a slightly rangier build than the rather stocky Dean. Milano broke out in 2019 with 101 tackles for Buffalo before logging 86 last year after missing a large swath of 2020. Milano is a top-half linebacker starter in the NFL, and the fifth-round pick has far out-performed his draft status.
Milano thrives as a pass rusher, making him a bit different of a utility player than Dean would be. However, Milano could be a good template for how a player such as Dean could be utilized early on.
| Drill | Dean | Milano |
| 40-yard dash | 4.74 secs | 4.67 secs |
| Vertical | 41.2 inches | 35 inches |
| 20-yard shuttle | 4.32 secs | 4.38 secs |
Dean is striking as a player who could fall due to a suboptimal pro day performance and a perceived small size. His times bely his speed. He moves very well sideline to sideline and diagnoses plays well. While he may not have Bush-like production as a rookie, he has the potential to be an immediate contributor in the right defense.
“I still think – listen, I know Nakobe is going to fall, because everyone I talk to in the league says it,” Todd McShay said in March, per 247 Sports. “I still have him as one of the top 12 players in this entire draft class and I don’t care if he’s sitting there on the top of my board from pick 12 to 24 and goes to Dallas at that spot. I’m going to feel great about what Dean’s going to do in the NFL.”
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While that’s just one person’s opinion, it’s true teams seem to be trying to thwart the stigma of size, but vestiges still remain. What Dean doesn’t have going for him, however, is a ridiculous workout. As long as teams value that, a player such as Dean is going to be undervalued no matter what his film — which is overwhelmingly positive — says.
Dean may not have the physicality or the raw speed of Bush or Smith — and asking him to be either of those top-flight talents immediately would be unfair — but he does have tremendous play diagnostic skills and very good discipline on defense.
He’s still very likely a first round pick, if only because of a relatively shallow linebacker class, but he could drop below the 6 foot 3 inch Devin Lloyd. If he falls out of the top 15 in this draft, there’s a chance he’s looked back upon as one of the highest-value picks in 2022.