Eagles notebook: Nakobe Dean's ‘choo-choo' celebration gaining steam
Eagles notebook: Nakobe Dean's choo-choo' celebration gaining steam originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Nakobe Dean's celebration is picking up steam - no pun intended.
If you've watched the last couple months of Eagles football, you've undoubtedly seen Dean make some impressive downhill play to blow up a running back or a tight end and immediately get into his new choo-choo" celebration.
Dean bends his right arm at a 90-degree angle pulls down a few times - as in, choo-choo, the train is coming. In recent weeks, his teammates have joined in.
I love that celebration," fellow linebacker Zack Baun said. I said that's gotta be this year's defensive celebration. He's of course like, Yeah, let's make it happen.' If he keeps making plays like he's making, it'll definitely pick up."
Dean, 25, was a huge part of the Eagles' defense in 2024 but tore his patellar tendon in the playoffs against the Packers and had a lengthy rehab that followed. While Dean began the season on the PUP list, he was activated for Week 6 and finally got on the field on defense in Week 7. That's the day he considers his real return.
And when he got his first TFL in that game, the choo-choo celebration was born.
I don't know where it came from," Dean said, but when I got the tackle, I did it and it just kind of stuck with me."
In his eight games since returning from injury, Dean already has a career-high 4 sacks to go along with 6 QB hits, 7 tackles for loss, 2 forced fumbles and 53 tackles. Dean didn't just return to his 2024 form; he's better.
And he has been playing with an aggressiveness worthy of a new celebration.
Come on, man! Come on!" Jordan Davis said. Anywhere I'm on the field, he does that, I'm pulling that chain, man. Stop playing! I'm a huge fan, man. Nakobe is balling out at an unbelievable level.
He has a chip on his shoulder and if y'all knew the stories that he has and the way that he plays and the edge that he plays with, y'all would understand the type of person that he is, the mentality that he has playing the game. I'm just extremely excited to see him ball out and play like that. That's my guy. Football aside, that's my dawg. We always get excited for those guys."
Avoiding negative runs
There's a balance to being a talented running back like Saquon Barkley and it's a balance he's been trying to find for years. On one hand, he wants to be a home run hitter. On the other, he wants to avoid negative plays.
That was a knock on me coming out of college," Barkley said. People think that I'm back there every single time trying to score a touchdown, which I am. Because I have the ability anytime I touch the ball, I could take it 90, I could take it however long I need to go. But there's a flow to the game. It's helpful when you're able to get positive runs and get those 3s and get those 4s, that sets up stuff later down the road. I feel like that conversation was had because I have to do a better job."
Barkley is closing in on 1,000 yards this season, which is still an accomplishment, but obviously less impressive than his 2,000-yard season in 2024. Barkley has been accountable for the ground struggles all season and on Thursday specifically pointed out his negative runs.
Barkley guessed that he's near the top of the NFL in negative runs and he's right. He leads the NFL with 38 negative runs this year:
1. Saquon Barkley: 38
2. Ashton Jeanty: 34
3. Breece Hall: 29
4. Christian McCaffrey: 26
5. Woody Marks: 24
5. Quinshon Judkins: 24
Of course, some of that just comes with being a volume runner. In his incredible season last year, Barkley had 33 negative runs, which still ranked third in the league. But he'd like to eliminate some of those.
That's not going to help the run game, that's not going to help the offense," Barkley said. Always keeping that in mind that there's sometimes you can't control it, but the ones that might be a negative-1 or a negative-2, if I can make that into a 2 or 3, that's helpful because that keeps us above the sticks and it makes play-calling a lot easier. It makes it a lot easier to be consistent with play-calling the run game when it's 2nd-and-6 rather than 2nd-and-9. That's kind of the mindset. Building off that, trusting that, getting the dirty runs and when the opportunity does come, which I am able to do, make them pay for it."
No more pitch count
After Nolan Smith returned earlier this year from a five-game stint on IR, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio talked about Smith's being on a pitch count.
That's over.
Yeah, I don't think the pitch counts there anymore," Fangio said this week. We've been rolling him, Jaylx (Hunt) and JP (Jaelan Phillips). I think every week he gets a little better."
Smith missed those five games with a triceps injury, which was concerning because he needed a surgery to repair his triceps after tearing it in Super Bowl LIX. Since his return from that IR stint, Smith has seen his usage increase.
Here's a look at Smith's snaps since coming off IR:
Week 10 at GB: 19 of 68 snaps (27.9%)
Week 11 vs. DET: 22 of 59 snaps (37.3%)
Week 12 at DAL: 40 of 74 snaps (54.1%)
Week 13 vs. CHI: 34 of 87 snaps (39.1%)
Week 14 at LAC: 44 of 74 snaps (59.5%)
Week 15 vs. LV: 26 of 42 snaps (61.9%)
In his last four games, Smith has 2 sacks and 4 QB hits. Not crazy numbers but he also has 16 pressures in those four games so it seems like his production is on the verge of exploding again.
He is getting better and more comfortable," Fangio said. And I think he's back to where he was."
A helpful wrinkle
The Eagles in their 31-0 win over the Raiders in Week 15 played a season-high number of snaps under center. Of their 66 plays, 30 of them were under-center, surpassing their previous season high of 21.
Jalen Hurts didn't play much under-center in college but he has gotten better at it during his NFL career. It seemed to work on Sunday. Hurts was 4-for-4 for 66 yards throwing out of under-center.
I think he can be very successful and efficient any way he needs to go and play," Sirianni said. Whether that's the gun, whether that's in pistol, whether that's under-center, he's shown the fact that the ability to be able to win and be efficient with everything from all different levels. Whether that's on the move, whether that's slightly on the move, whether that's a drop back and right in the same area, I just think he's been efficient throughout [the] course of his career and everything that he goes through."
Of their 30 plays under-center on Sunday, the Eagles had 24 runs and 6 passes that gained a total of 175 yards. They averaged 15.8 yards per play on those six passes. Using under-center has been a way for the Eagles to get their play-action game going as they tie the run to the pass. They should probably continue to lean in on it.
Every day of the week
There was a funny moment in the Eagles' locker room after their 31-0 win over the Raiders when Nick Sirianni announced to his team that they were on another short week - their fifth of the season.
This is great. pic.twitter.com/QtFjiTDjv9
- Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) December 15, 2025
This has been a weird Eagles season for a lot of reasons. One of them is that they are playing on just about every day of the week. That continues this weekend with a rare Saturday game against the Commanders.
The Eagles this season will have played on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Friday. That has also created a bunch of short weeks.
That's life in the NFL, especially for a team that's had the success that we've had," head coach Nick Sirianni said on Tuesday. We understand that. Like everything, whether you're on a short week, long week, you have these processes that you go through and you constantly tweak them and try to make- I love our short week schedule right now. I was just saying that to the coaches. I don't want to play 30 of these, but you adapt the schedule and you adapt your process to try to get better each time."
Sirianni said the Eagles did something a little different coming off their Monday night game against the Chargers that they did again this week.
I always want the players to get their rest that they need because we can do all the schedule stuff we want," Sirianni said. Their bodies are still coming off of a short week. Our strength and conditioning staff, our doctors, our trainers, they do a great job. We're all in this growth mindset and that's something [where] we all have to think that way. That can't just be me, it can't just be the players, it can't just be the coaches. The whole buildings in this growth mindset. I take a lot of pride in that.
Different things that we've done. The players, we gave them a little bit more rest last week. We'll give them a little bit more rest this week, whether that's sleeping in or a couple periods off with practice. It's all in attempts to make them be as fresh as possible and have our plan to be the best plan we possibly can have."
Crosby on Philly
The Raiders don't play in Philadelphia very often but Pro Bowler defensive end Maxx Crosby enjoyed his first time playing in the Linc.
It's pretty cool to hear one of the best players in the game speak so glowingly about his experience. It's also just cool to hear that Crosby just gets what it's about in Philly:
Maxx Crosby loved playing in Philly
True Fanbases that love their city and team" #FlyEaglesFly
: @TheRushWithMaxxpic.twitter.com/lfBHGBdCC2
- All About The Birds (@AATBirds) December 17, 2025