Nakobe Dean has emerged as not only a playmaker, but a leader of the defense in his third year in the league.

Dean is second on the team with 58 tackles this season and has three sacks and a game-sealing interception to go along with it.

The former Georgia Bulldog has a unique background outside of football, however. A mechanical engineering student in college, Dean is way more than just a football player.

Dean spoke with PhiladelphiaEagles.com from the NovaCare Complex locker room for a more inside glimpse of the stud linebacker's life off the field.

Liam Wichser: Going back to your time at Georgia, you were a mechanical engineering major with a 3.55 GPA. What got you into that and how were you able to manage football and a major of that difficulty?

Nakobe Dean: "My mother, Neketta Dean, is a veteran; she used to go to the VA (The United States Department of Veterans Affairs) all the time. I remember when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to major in college, I thought back to the time she was taking me to the VA, and I used to see all the people with amputated limbs and everything. So, I initially wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to build and design prosthetics to help those people. I wanted to be a doctor, but I took chemistry in college, didn't like chemistry, so I just stuck with engineering. I learned all the different types of things you can do in engineering. You can build prosthetics; you can build bridges. You can do all types of things. So that really interested me in being able to maintain it. I'd be lying if I said it was any type of easy in college, it was hard. Looking back on it, I'm still like, Man, 'how was I able to sustain all that, plus a social life in college?' I picked things I wanted to do and I did it because I wanted to."

LW: What do you do outside of football?

ND: "To be honest, I'm doing more work. When I say more work, I mean, as far as business, things like research and different types of business investments and things like that. Because I just enjoy that. I enjoy traveling, I'm big traveler. I mean, I can't travel much during the season, but I like to move around, meet people. I like to shoot pool. I don't have a game system. I don't really watch too much TV. I like I play chess with Moro Ojomo all the time. He's been kicking my butt lately, too, but I'm going to get it right."

LW: Growing up in Mississippi and then going to Georgia and staying south, what was it like coming to Philadelphia?

ND: "It was way different. I had never lived in the city. Never lived up North. I had never seen people parking in the middle of the street in South Philly. So, it was a learning curve. It was colder; it was different. I remember the first time I went to New York. I'm thinking, 'This is as far as I've been North,' so it was like little things like that. But of course, I had no doubt that I was going to adapt fast, and I did. Wherever I'm at, I'm going to enjoy myself."

LW: What is your favorite part of Philly?

ND: "I would say the accessibility of having everything. Now, I know people up North might look at me crazy if I say the accessibility and having everything near, but I never lived near a big city. So being able to live near a city, in a big city like this, you have a lot of things to do which for me is big. Just having the city right there, and also going over to Cherry Hill, (New Jersey), and having just a regular non-city."

LW: What would you do if you weren't playing football? Does it go back to mechanical engineering?

ND: "It might be business. I definitely would have still got my degree in mechanical engineering. But when I kind of tailed out of college, I started getting into the world of business and investing in running the business and things like that. I kind of got real interested in that. So, I'd probably be doing that right now."