Bucs Free Agent Target: ILB Nakobe Dean

By putting an extra man on the line, Dean was allowed to freelance more and find the ball, which he is really good at. But he’s not a big, powerful stack-and-shed backer with excellent take-on skills. He has to rely on his speed to beat blockers to spots. With a shorter frame and levers he struggles to detach when offensive linemen get ahold of him.

As a tackler Dean has good form and can break down with balance, but his limited arm length and inconsistent angles to the ball will lead to some misses. It’s neither a strength nor a weakness of his game.

Coverage

This is where Dean would provide an instant upgrade over anything the Bucs had last year. Here are Dean’s coverage metrics per Next Gen Stats.

• 65 targets
• 43 catches
• 66.2% catch rate
• 460 yards
• -9.2% catch rate over expected
• -16.1 Coverage EPA
• 0 touchdowns
• 1 interception

Dean is quick with his eyes and can pick up and pass off routes well. He has smooth hips and backpedals with speed and confidence.  He can match backs and even the best tight ends in space. This is what immediately makes Dean a potential upgrade over what the Bucs had in the room last year. The Eagles didn’t mind putting Dean in one-on-one situations with some of the most athletic backs in the NFL on third downs. His superpower is getting to flats to blow up plays on the perimeter in a world where offenses are increasingly trying to win horizontally.

His instincts in coverage are often proven right as he understands how teams are trying to attack him and he has small cheats to take away opponents’ advantages.

Pass Rush

Dean scored in the 94th percentile for pressure rate in 2025 at 34%. Those pressures largely came from depth as Philadelphia kept him off the line of scrimmage and had him blitz where he could scream through defined lanes. He fears no blocking back and will run right through them without taking his foot off the gas.

Where he has little experience is as an on-the-line rusher working with less space and as a lever to create opportunities for teammates by banging blockers to give lanes to others. Dean doesn’t have much in the bag to win other than just running fast through small backs to the quarterback. This isn’t dissimilar to how Devin White was successful in Tampa Bay as a pass rusher.

How Does Nakobe Dean Fit The Bucs System?

This has layers. Nakobe Dean was in the fourth percentile last year in on-the-ball rate as the Eagles kept Dean several yards behind the line of scrimmage as a true read-and-react backer almost exclusively. As a middle linebacker he wouldn’t be asked to be on the line as much, but still considerably more than he is used to. That change would also negate his best traits as a pass rusher coming from depth with a head of steam.

But I think moving him to an odd-front system like the Bucs use, even in nickel packages where they often walk up the weakside linebacker as a fifth man on the line, would get the most out of Dean as a run defender. And importantly, in a blitz-heavy system that needs underneath defenders to move quickly and smoothly and limit yards after catch, Dean has everything you’d want in a modern-day linebacker.

The marriage of Dean and the Bucs would be a fascinating one, that would require both sides to re-think their recent styles to make the most of things. Yet I don’t think it’s necessarily something that would stop him from succeeding in Tampa Bay.

But Dean has not been asked to mug-and-drop in Vic Fangio’s quarters-heavy system, and he would be asked to do that a considerable amount working with Todd Bowles. He has the athleticism to drop, but I openly wonder how well he would work matching the phone-booth physicality needed to punch in the a-gaps off the snap.

External Factors And Cost

Nakobe Dean isn’t without red flags. For a team that experienced significant injuries last year, the Bucs may not have Dean high on their list of targets. He was considered a first-round talent when he declared for the draft in 2022, but injury concerns fueled a fall to the third round. Those concerns haven’t gone away.

Dean missed seven games this season and 21 over the past three seasons. Dean’s talent and athleticism will make him one of the highest paid players in this free agent linebacker class, but how many games will teams be paying for is a fair question.

Dean’s upside and reputation at a position with precious few true difference-makers will lead to a robust market for his services. I currently have him valued at a $14.67 million APY over three years with a Jeremiah Owusu-Koromoah’s 2024 contract as the comp.

I’ll leave you with an excellent five-minute breakdown of Dean’s best traits done by Shawn Syed of Sumer Sports.