Nov 10, 2025; Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA; General view of an Philadelphia Eagles helmet during the game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

Eagles Rookie Star Isn't Getting Bigger Role Right Now

Originally posted on Philadelphia Eagles on SI
By Patrick McAvoy | Last updated Nov 26, 2025 3:24 PM ET

The Philadelphia Eagles' pass rush has been fortunate to get reinforcements over the course of the season.

Jaelan Phillips and Brandon Graham got the vast majority of the headlines simply because of the public nature of their additions to the Eagles. Phillips was a big-time trade deadline pickup and Graham is a team legend who came out of retirement to help the team at a time of need.

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The Eagles rookie will not be getting more snaps in the near future

That's not all, though. Nakobe Dean has quietly been awesome for the Eagles over the course of the season. Dean is a guy who was knocked out of the playoffs last season due to a brutal knee injury. He didn't make his season debut until Oct. 9th, but has progressively gotten more and more time on the defensive side and has made the most of it. On the flip side, we've seen rookie linebacker Jihaad Campbell's playing time take a hit. On Tuesday, Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio was asked if Campbell's playing time would continue in this direction and had a brief response centered on Dean.

"Nakobe's playing very well," Fangio said. "He deserves to be in there."

Dean has been great. He has a sack in three straight games and played a season-high 83.8 percent of the defensive snaps this past weekend against the Dallas Cowboys. Overall, he's played just six games and yet he has three sacks, one forced fumble, 26 total tackles, and four quarterback hits. Each game he has played he has played in a higher percentage of the defensive snaps than the week before.

Campbell has been great too. He has played in 11 games this season and has one interception, two passes defended, one forced fumble, and 53 total tackles. In his first seven games of the season, he played in at least 87 percent of the defensive snaps. That trend has shifted. Over the last four games he's played in 40.4 percent, 50 percent, 33.9 percent, and 14.9 percent of the defensive snaps overall.

From Fangio's comment, it sounds like that there will be more of the same coming in the near future.

This article first appeared on Philadelphia Eagles on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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