Vic Fangio Confirms Nakobe Dean Starting Over Devin White
Vic Fangio did his weekly press conference on Wednesday:
Q: Do you think Nakobe Dean did enough to start again, should Devin White not be ready – will he start even if Devin White is ready?
Fangio: Nakobe’s the starter.
<other questions>
Q: With Nakobe a starter now, where does Devin White fit in, and have you talked to him about (it) considering he took so many first-team reps in training camp?
Fangio: Yeah obviously we’ve talked to him about it. He’s still a good player. He tweaked his ankle last week. He’s still a part of it and will be a part of it.
Q: So what went into the decision to have Nakobe as a starter? What did you see?
Fangio: I just think from the start of camp to the end, he won the job.
White didn’t travel to Brazil and therefore did not play in Week 1. With the Eagles throwing him $3,500,000 guaranteed on a one-year deal, we assumed at the time of the signing he’d be a starter, but you consider the injury and Zack Baun’s impressive debut and now Devin White is LB3 on the depth chart.
Does that mean he sucks? Not necessarily. We haven’t seen him play a snap for the Birds. Maybe he’s got something left in the tank. But for now they’re going with Dean and Baun out there, with the pair playing 131 combined snaps in Sao Paulo.
Sidenote: it’s nice to see Vic Fangio be blunt about this. Nothing cryptic, not trying to hide the trade secrets. One guy won the job and the other injured his ankle, so there’s no ambiguity in what’s going on.