'Hunters, Not Hunted': Eagles LB Nakobe Dean Talks Mindset After Super Bowl Loss

Philadelphia Eagles inside linebacker Nakobe Dean is looking to take a big-step forward in his second season.

The Philadelphia Eagles are one of the early favorites to win the Super Bowl next February. That's despite coming off a heartbreaking loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in February, where the Eagles were potentially a defensive holding penalty away from winning it all.  

But that feeling of being the "top dogs," or "dawgs" - as the former Georgia players on the Eagles would spell it - isn't stopping the team from trying to re-establish the mindset of hunters.

In a recent interview with "Good Morning Football" on the NFL Network, second-year Eagles inside linebacker Nakobe Dean discussed the team's mindset before the start of OTAs. 

"We've got a lot of underdogs on the team, a lot of people who play with a lot of chips on their shoulders, so we'll never sit back and act like we're the one with the targets on our backs," Dean said. "We don't look at it like we've got the target on our back. We look at it like we're the ones out there hunting."

This statement of intention from Dean contradicts the belief that a post-Super Bowl loss hangover is inevitable for the Eagles in 2023. The doubters point to the Eagles losing both their coordinators and former key contributors in free agency as reasons Philadelphia could take a step back in 2023.

Yet, after another potentially strong draft class where multiple Georgia players were taken, general manager Howie Roseman hopes he did enough to help the Eagles get back to the Super Bowl and, this time, win it. 

Despite not playing many meaningful snaps in his rookie season, Dean is looking to step up on an Eagles' defense that will need some reinforcements due to subtractions. Among the players who left Philadelphia this offseason were inside linebackers T.J. Edwards and Kyzir White, who played ahead of Dean.

Dean recorded just 13 total tackles last season in 17 games after coming into the league out of Georgia, where he totaled 168 tackles, 13.5 for a loss, six sacks, and two interceptions in his three seasons. 

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