Rob Leonard got a pretty quick reminder during training camp of exactly who is in charge of his defense out on the field when linebacker Nakobe Dean threw the Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator out of the huddle.

There was no malice or ill-intent to the interaction. Leonard, in his first year in the role after spending the last three years as defensive line coach, appreciated Dean taking charge.

“Command. Confidence,” Leonard said of what Dean brings to the group. “He’s like, ‘Robbie, get out of my huddle. I got it.’ I want to get up in there and start up, but that’s not the reality of how the game’s played. Just leadership. It feels good to have that at the (middle) linebacker.”

It’s a big part of why the Raiders made such an investment in Dean and his college teammate Quay Walker during free agency in an effort to vastly upgrade a position that has been a weakness of the team’s the last few years.

The early returns are promising as Dean and Walker have already brought leadership and are expected to back it up on the field once the season begins.

Dean smiled when told Leonard had shared the story of being kicked out of the huddle, but explained it was a practical matter.

“You don’t want training wheels because you realize that Coach is not going to be out there with you,” Dean said. “It’s y’all out there making the plays. So yeah, you learn that fast.”

His command of the defense has been evident despite the fact he was unable to practice during OTAs and minicamp with what was described as a minor injury. Dean insists he is full go now.

“I feel good,” he said after Tuesday’s training camp practice. “Ready to go.”

The Raiders are just as excited about what he brings to the game mentally and he was able to get plenty of work done in the meeting rooms this spring.

Dean, who is just a few credits short of finishing his mechanical engineering degree at Georgia, will be an extension of Leonard on the field as he calls plays and lines up the group.

“The mental part of the game is everything for me,” Dean said. “I feel like it’s not only my great equalizers, it’s my superpower. Training camp I try to make it hard. I don’t try to scheme against our offense. I don’t want to hear what they call. I don’t want to hear anything. I want to be all pure instincts. But when you get to the season and you can watch film on the team and you can see tendencies of guys, or of a guy’s play call, it makes the whole game kind of easier and makes everything slow down.”

Dean’s embrace of that role should also help free up Walker, who has worn the green dot as the playcaller throughout his NFL career in Green Bay.

Now he can shift his responsibilities a bit and rely more on his instincts as he embraces a bit of a role change in Leonard’s defense.

“It’s kind of different, but it has allowed me just to have a little less on my plate,” Walker said. “I think I’m at my best — not saying that I don’t like it because I am a linebacker, so I still treat it like it’s the same — but yeah, it has freed me up a little bit.”

Still, old habits are tough to break and that may actually be a good thing for the Raiders. They will often have two players on the field who have filled that role for most of their careers, and Walker admits he is still thinking like a playcaller even though he’s not in communication with the sideline before the play.

Walker said while Dean is receiving the call, he’s already looking at down and distance and processing the situation.

“Situationally, I’m just alert to screens, play action, whatever the case may be,” he said. “Third-and-short situation, fourth-and-short, just alert the D-line to watch the ball, earmuffs, to not hear the cadence. Just watch the ball, get off on the ball, move when the ball moves and things like that. I still have a lot of knowledge because I played a lot of ball, so I’m not going to stop doing what I’m doing just because I’m technically not the green dot. I still treat it like I am. That’s all.”

Dean said he believes the roles will unlock a new level in Walker, which would be a very good thing for the Raiders as he has already been a very productive player in the league.

“Anytime you have two linebackers like that that can be alpha males and just speak out and communicate like that, it betters the whole defense,” Walker said. “So that’s all I can say.”

While they are having fun being back together again, they are also excited about the rest of the defense and what Leonard is constructing.

“We are hungry,” Dean said. “Everybody can be held accountable, and everybody is being held accountable, to not only do their jobs but go above and beyond and try to work every day to be the best version of ourselves. So, that’s the biggest thing. Everybody’s hungry and everybody’s intelligent.”

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.