quay walker nakobe dean
Getty
Quay Walker with Nakobe Dean.
There’s a lot of excitement surrounding the potential of the Las Vegas Raiders‘ defense. The group was middle-of-the-pack last year, but did a lot to upgrade the personnel.
The weakest position group last was linebacker, so the team decided to spend big on Quay Walker and Nakobe Dean. It’s still early in the offseason, but the Raiders haven’t had a chance to see Dean on the practice field.
At first, there was concern that he wasn’t in the building, but he’s actually been with the team; he just hasn’t been practicing. The Raiders have been very vague about what’s going on with him. Walker has been close friends with Dean since they played at Georgia together, and he had a chance to address the situation.
“You never know what could have happened, or whatever the case may be,” Walker told reporters. “But he’s still here every day. That’s all I can really say as of now.”
The Raiders previously didn’t outright say that he was injured, but head coach Klint Kubiak suggested that he’s dealing with an injury right now.
“Nakobe’s been here every day in practice,” Kubiak said. “But all injuries and things like that, I don’t want to talk about at this time of year. We just want to get all of our guys healthy to training camp. That’s really the most important thing.”
Walker Talks Chemistry With Dean
A big reason why the Raiders are excited about adding Walker and Dean is that the two have great chemistry together. They helped lead one of the best defenses in college football history at Georgia, and this is going to be the first time they can play together at the NFL level.
Walker believes that their previous experience is going to allow them to pick up the slack for each other throughout the season.
“We can feed off each other real, real well,” Walker said. “Some days we’re all human, so some days he may come in, he may not be feeling it a little bit, or I may not be feeling it, but we can like feel each other’s energy. We could just pick up and push one another.”
Kubiak Provides Jermod McCoy Update
The other big injury the Raiders are going to have to keep a close eye on involves rookie cornerback Jermod McCoy. He missed the entirety of his final college season due to a torn ACL, which caused him to fall in the draft.
There was talk that he may need an additional surgery that would cause him to miss his rookie season, but the Raiders appear willing to let him play this season and see what happens. Kubiak gave some details about their plans for McCoy.
“He’s done a great job,” Kubiak said. “We’re asking him to spend a lot of time with AG just to get him ready so that when we put him out there come training camp, we have 100% confidence in him, and him the same way. But really excited about seeing him practice come training camp. AG has got a great plan with our medical staff, and we’re bringing him along slowly.”