f.“Something Big Just Changed in Philly!” — Nakobe Dean Breaks Silence on MAJOR Eagles Practice Shake-Up After 2 Straight Losses.f

Heading into Week 7 of the 2025 NFL season, the Philadelphia Eagles need to do something, anything, to get back on track after suffering a series of increasingly frustrating losses to the Denver Broncos and then the New York Giants.

Well, as it turns out, the Eagles have been internally trying to figure that out too, going so far as to throw on the pads for a Wednesday practice instead of their usual walkthrough in order to bring some fire back to both sides of the ball, as Nakobe Dean told reporters on Wednesday.

“We had a practice today, we had the pads back on. So it tells you, compared to the week before that, we didn’t have the pads on,” Dean noted. “So that tells you just the mentality we’re just trying to get back to the work. Trying to be one of the guys every day.”

Asked if Vic Fangio presented the idea of wearing pads during practice or if the players presented the idea to their defensive coordinator, Dean noted it was a collaborative effort, with the entire defense looking to come together in the pursuit of recapturing their Super Bowl form.

“It was definitely, probably it was a coach thing, but some players went to him and said, ‘No more walk-through Wednesday. We gotta go, we gotta have pads on,’” Dean explained. “But he’s probably gonna change anyway, knowing. But I mean, not a big team, we went one week without it. And then it seemed like we lost two games, so it was like, all right, get back in the pad. It was cool, all the superstitions figured out.”

So what can the Eagles do to get back on track? Well, Dean commented on that too, noting that after getting a few days off to think about the loss, Philadelphia is ready to bring some violence to Minnesota.

“He spoke on it, and that was it. He didn’t beat a dead horse, I would say, you know what I’m saying? Definitely, after we had the Friday, Saturday, Sunday off, we were gonna come in Monday to talk about how bad we were on Thursday. So we watched the film individually, but not as a defense,” Dean said.

“We moved on to Minnesota, and we know we gotta pick up the nastiness, the violence, and the toughness of the group, and we gotta get our swagger back. And I feel like, I don’t feel like I know it’s gonna happen.”

Returning from the PUP list in Week 5 after spending all of September in street clothes, Dean made his debut in Week 6 against the Giants, logging just six special teams snaps as he eased his way back into the mix. With the Eagles’ deal with injuries and a surprise retirement on the defensive line, bringing the right attitude to Minnesota could be a key to returning to the win column and getting the season back on track.

One change for the Eagles coming off their mini-bye was to put the pads back on for Wednesday’s practice, says Nakobe Dean. pic.twitter.com/M3enlCl4WT

— Tim McManus (@Tim_McManus) October 15, 2025

Why Detroit Lions Players Are Not PFF Fans

How NFL players are evaluated has been put into the spotlight this week.

One of the most popular player grading tools is Pro Football Focus. Their weekly grades are looked at by college football fans, NFL front offices and by a significant amount of NFL fans and pundits.

Several Detroit Lions players told Lions OnSI this week the weekly grades are not really indicative of how a player is performing. One called the graphics aired and what is put in them during player introductions simply “entertainment.”

Former NFL offensive lineman Chris Long took offense to seeing PFF grades on the screen during Sunday Night Football and shared his reasoning on a recent episode of the “Green Light” podcast

“Get Mahomes quarterback 13 of 32 off my television screen. We’re talking about legislation, what our kids shouldn’t see at school, what they shouldn’t be learning about, should we have political ads on television. I want the PFF scores off the TV as bad as I want political ads off the television,” Long expressed. “God forbid there’s somebody watching the game who doesn’t know who f—ing Patrick Mahomes is. They’re going to be badly misguided, brother. Thirteenth best quarterback in the league? If I was (Derrick) Nnadi, and maybe he earned it this year, but I would f—ing sue. I would be in Cris Collinsworth’s backyard dude.”

Collinsworth defended the platform this week, explaining anyone is free to come visit and see how the grades are curated.

“Thanks for the attention, you’re helping our sales,” Collinsworth said on “The Up & Adams Show,” when asked about the increased scrutiny. “It’s easy to criticize if you haven’t seen how the potato chips are made, but an open invitation to all those guys. Anybody who wants to come in and take a look, debate, argue, sit down, pound the table. We’ve had a lot of people do it in the past, and we’ll have a lot of people do it in the future.”

Former NFL defensive end J.J. Watt told Pat McAfee this week, “I’ve had my issues with PFF for a very long time. The No. 1 issue with PFF by far, bar none, hands down is their player-grading system and the fact that they project it everywhere, including nationally televised games on Sunday night where everybody’s watching.

“I know defensive line play unbelievably well. I could not go and grade a game for a player and give him a definitive grade without speaking to him, his coach, learning the scheme, everything,” Watt added. “PFF has a ton of great stuff but player grading sucks. Stop putting it out.”

Linebacker Grant Stuard understands why fans put stock into the platform, but shared he only looks at PFF to see how many snaps he played at the end of the season.

“I just think it’s strange,” said linebacker Grant Stuard. “Like who said that PFF was the one that everybody is going off of or whatever? Sometimes you see PFF or even a reporter say something like, ‘Alex Anzalone, he played the most nickel cornerback snaps.’ No, he’s just lined up in the apex. He might have been blitzing. So, if a fan is maybe putting some stock into it, because what else do they have to put stock into? I’m saying they don’t know, really. Nobody knows what we’re running but us. So, I can understand the value that it presents, but I don’t think too much about it.”

Cornerback Terrion Arnold indicated he will never accept PFF as a fair grading system, since those evaluating players do not even know what plays are being called or what scheme is actually being ran.

“I will never accept PFF, because they ain’t even real,” said Arnold. “If you go and look at it, it’s saying in their database, the main people who grade it — like I stopped checking when there was a play where I was in Cover 2 and it said I was actually in man-to-man. So, they don’t really know the scheme.

“Then it was another thing, too. I went and looked at the touchdowns. When I go and look and it says I gave up this and this. I was the closest in the vicinity of the play, but that wasn’t the play call,” Arnold added. “So, when I go and look at it, PFF is not getting ready to get you paid, it’s not ready to go out here and show the ins and outs of what’s really going on. Because at the end of the day, those coaches who are designing those schemes aren’t out there grading.”

Amik Robertson stopped looking at PFF grades during his second NFL season. Even though rankings are aired publicly, the veteran defensive back is focused more on what he puts on film, where his coaches are actually aware of what his responsibilities are during a given play.

“PFF is just guys who never played the game. They do not even know what defense we are in. I stopped looking at PFF when I was in my second year in the league,” said Robertson. “Man, I stopped worrying about PFF. You know, it’s all good, but I stopped paying attention to PFF, man. I just go out there and perform. I know a lot a lot of guys think the same way, though. They don’t really believe in PFF. Some guys do, though.

“I really don’t give a f**k. I don’t really care. I don’t really care about rankings. I try to let my film speak for itself, man. Because at the end of the day, the eye in the sky don’t lie,” Robertson commented further. “Like I said, most of the time they don’t know what defense we are running, they don’t know this guy’s job, they see who is in the vicinity of the ball getting thrown. That’s all they see. So, I never really cared about it.”