Sunday's big win over the Green Bay Packers came at a cost.
Emerging third-year linebacker Nakobe Dean suffered a knee injury that will sideline him for the remainder of the postseason.
"Nakobe's had a great year. As you guys saw the reports, he's going to be out and we sure will miss him. He's made big plays all year long. The one that comes to everyone's mind is going to be the interception against Jacksonville to seal the game, but he had a couple plays in yesterday's game that are just outstanding that set the tone of how physical we were going to play," Head Coach Nick Sirianni said.
"The fourth play of the game, the way he comes down, I think the fourth play of the game really shows you who Nakobe Dean is. He identifies the play lightning fast and that's because of how much time he spends working on his game. He lights up the puller with that physical toughness play. You saw everything of what Nakobe is on that play. Bam, good football IQ. Boom, physical toughness. And, yeah, we'll miss him, that's for sure. Got a lot of faith in the guys in that room, but we'll miss him for sure."
On the play where Dean injured his knee – a second-and-10 play in the second quarter, the linebacker diagnosed a quick pass from quarterback Jordan Love to tight end Tucker Kraft. Dean slid around the block attempt from right tackle Zach Tom and wrapped up Kraft for a loss of 3 yards.
Linebacker Nolan Smith was the first player to come to Dean's aid after the play. Smith went to help him up and Dean shook him off.
"It hurt my heart," said Smith, who was roommates with Dean at the University of Georgia. "I just immediately closed my eyes and prayed right then because, to a lot of people, it's a game. 'This is just football.' This is our livelihood. Me and him leave it out there on the field.
"He works so hard and his determination, I feel like he's one of those guys I can lean on and ask for anything and he'd give me the clothes off his back, the food off his plate."
Oren Burks replaced Dean on defense, while Zack Baun took the "green dot" helmet communications system to receive the play call from the coaches for the remainder of the game.
In 15 regular-season games in 2024, Dean had a career-high 128 tackles, nine for loss, three sacks, 19 QB hits and pressures, two fumble recoveries, a forced fumble, and an interception.
Sunday marked Dean's first playoff start. He had six tackles before exiting the game.
