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Eagles Vic Fangio Gives Update on Injured Linebacker

Originally posted on Philadelphia Eagles on SI
By Ed Kracz | Last updated Dec 23, 2025 3:38 PM ET

Nakobe Dean is, in the words of defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, “iffy” to play on Sunday when the Eagles travel to Buffalo to face a red-hot Bills team on Sunday.

“Disappointing, but the good news (is), I don’t think it’s too serious and I don’t think we’re done seeing him for this season,” said Fangio.

Losing Dean last year in the opening round of the playoffs to a knee injury looked to be devastating. Until Oren Burks stepped in, and the Eagles didn’t miss a beat. They won all three playoff teams to make the Super Bowl then won the Super Bowl, too, with Burks making 25 tackles, three for loss, with two forced fumbles, and one pass defensed in those four postseason games.

This year’s injury to Dean isn’t a severe as a knee injury, which required surgery and a rehab that saw him spend the first five weeks of this season on the PUP list. He suffered a hamstring injury early in the Eagles 29-18 win over the Commanders last Saturday that wrapped up a second-straight NFC East championship.

The Luxury Of Having First-Round Draft Pick As Backup

The Eagles have the luxury of having Jihaad Campbell backing up Dean. Campbell looked like a rookie of the year candidate starting the season while Dean rehabbed his knee. Back at his inside linebacker post after Dean left in Washington, Campbell made five tackles in the win while playing 36 snaps (67 percent).

“It’s good,” said Fangio about having a first-round pick to back up Dean. “I think he played, what, the first six or seven games and has played little since; you know, spots. It’s good. It’s good for him, good for us.”

For the season, Campbell has 59 tackles, an interception, and a forced fumble. When Dean returned on Oct. 9 in just a special teams role to start, the Eagles began using Campbell at outside linebacker, a role that proved challenging with teams running at him when he worked the edge.

They also used him there when the Eagles were losing edge players to injury seemingly every week, and that was a reason they talked Brandon Graham out of retiremenet and traded for Jaelan Phillips.

“Obviously, when we had to move him to OLB when we ran out of guys for a few weeks, kind of slowing his development or progress as an ILB,” said Fangio. “It’ll be good to get him back there and focused on that.”

The Eagles have just two games remaining, starting with a Bills team that has won four in a row, and followed by a home game against the Commanders at the start of the new year, so Dean may not need to return until the playoffs.

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

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