A week ago on a radio show, someone asked me “who’s the SEC player you feel best about succeeding at the NFL level?”

Without hesitation, I said “Nakobe Dean.”

I cited his unteachable instincts, he’s lateral speed, his ability to make open field tackles, his leadership, his high character as the captain of the AFCA Allstate Goodworks Team and 1 other thing.

He was the best player on arguably the best college defense of the 21st century. As in, the Georgia defense who just had 7 players drafted in the first 3 rounds.

So yeah, give me Dean, I said. Give me the guy who jumped off the page every time I saw him play, whether that was in person in the Playoff (both times) and in Jacksonville, or from home on my couch.

Yet in the first 82 picks of the 2022 NFL Draft, teams said “nah, give me someone else.” They said “give me the offensive guard out of UT-Chattanooga.” They said “give me the linebacker who ran the 4.42-second 40-yard dash from Montana State.” They said “give me someone who doesn’t have a pec injury.”

Baffling.

Check that. Dean’s fall was maddening. Human beings with his physical and mental capabilities aren’t supposed to get passed over like an overripe avocado in the grocery store.

Even as reports slipped out about Dean’s refusal to have surgery in his injured pec surfaced, I still would’ve given the same answer to that initial question. Give me Dean. One pec, zero pec. Don’t care.

Remember, this is the dude who never missed one of Georgia’s 39 games while he was in Athens. Did Dean look like a guy hurt? Did he look like his “short arms” ever impacted his ability to diagnose plays and blow them up?

If you thought Dean played like a guy with a head of steam before, well, just wait and see what he does in Philadelphia.

I mean, he can be half as effective as he was at Georgia and he can still more than live up to his Round 3 selection. This is the guy who led Georgia in tackles for loss (10.5) and finished No. 2 in sacks (6). He also added 31 quarterback hurries, 6 pass breakups and 2 interceptions en route to the Butkus Award as the best linebacker in America.

But traits! What about his combine numbers?! And his short arms?!

Sure. Clearly, Dean will be exposed once he starts facing better competition because the SEC is known for having minimal next-level talent. Clearly, Dean’s instincts will go away and PFF’s top-graded linebacker in the country was just benefitting from scheme with a dominant defensive line opening up holes for him. Right.

It’s a good thing that middle linebackers never have to cover in today’s NFL. Oh wait. They do? Ah, my bad. It’s a good thing that Dean’s short arms didn’t prevent him from earning PFF’s No. 3 coverage grade among FBS inside linebackers.

If you spent any time watching Dean play football, you probably found yourself getting increasingly frustrated with his slip as a former first-round prospect who came off the board at No. 83 overall. Well, unless you were a Florida fan. Then again, Dean did have a 50-yard pick-6 against the Gators this past year, and he had 15 tackles against the Gators a year before that. Even Florida fans can agree that Dean’s fall was ridiculous.

Guys with ACL and Achilles heel injuries came off the board without testing, yet Dean’s medicals got different treatment. Would he have been given treatment if he had longer arms? Or if he simply said “yeah, I’ll have surgery,” would he perhaps have come off the board earlier? Probably.

But then again, this league is still unpredictable. Go back to mid-December. Could anybody have predicted that Travon Walker would be picked 82 picks ahead of Dean? Of course not. Shoot, go back to mid-day Friday. Nobody could’ve predicted that, either.

Friday night began with Dean being listed as the No. 1 player on Todd McShay’s “best available.” He had to wait more than 3 hours to finally hear his name called. McShay echoed the frustration of many before Dean came off the board. He looked into the ABC camera and in what was essentially a direct message to NFL front offices/Dean skeptics said “three years from now, we’ll come back and we’ll have a conversation.”

He’s right.

It’s the same point my guy Josh Pate said going into the NFL Draft when Dean was considered a borderline first-rounder.

That question is one still worth asking. That was well before it was known that Dean would fall all the way into the latter half of Round 3.

Dean now will have a chance to play in a city that’ll appreciate his hard-nosed, blue-collar attitude. Most mechanical engineer majors with a 3.5 GPA aren’t exactly known for cutting corners. Dean won’t do that. Pec injury or not, he’s special. That’s why Georgia fans couldn’t stop talking about him at this time last year when he was set to take on a starting role for the first time in his career.

Now, it’s Eagles fans who should be excited to have Dean set to take on a new role. For what it’s worth, those perceived medical issues apparently won’t hold him out of rookie mini camp.

And if Dean does go in a different direction with the surgery that forces him to miss significant time in his first year, why wouldn’t that yield the best version of him yet? After all, the “banged up” Dean still became the best player on a historically dominant defense. His floor is plenty high.

Dean’s NFL Draft story will soon be a cautionary tale. It’ll be a reminder of what can happen when the league overthinks something. Dean didn’t need to be overthought. He needed to be drafted on Thursday, or at the very least as an inside linebacker, he needed to come off the board early on Friday.

Instead, we had to have this conversation. Three years from now, we can have another conversation.