Measurables
UNIVERSITY- Michigan AGE-21 CLASS- JR
HEIGHT- 6’5” WEIGHT-250 ARM LENGTH-
40 Time- 3 CONE- VERTICAL- BROAD JUMP- BENCH PRESS-
Overview
David Ojabo was born in Nigeria. In 2007 him and his family moved to Scotland. As a sophomore in high school Ojabo moved to New Jersey and attended Blair Academy. When he first arrived at Blair Academy he played soccer and basketball but as a junior he would give football a shot for the first time in his life. He would then become a 4 star recruit by most publications for his high school senior class of 2018. Ojabo also won the 2018 prep state title(New Jersey) in the 100-meter dash, he posted a time of 10.93 seconds. In 2019 as a freshman for Michigan, Ojabo did not see any game time but was named the Defensive Scout Team Player of the Year for the team. In 2020 he played in all 6 games, seeing action on special teams as well as playing 3 games at OLB. In 2021 Ojabo played a significant role in all 14 of Michigan’s games as they had one of their better seasons in recent history, finishing with a CF playoff semifinal loss to eventual national champion Georgia. He totaled 35 tackles, 12 TFL, 11 sacks, 5 FFs, 3 PBUs and 1 FR in his lone season that featured him in a prominent role. He earned Second-team All-American and Consensus First-team All-Big Ten honors. Ojabo was also an academic stand-out in his collegiate career at Michigan.
Strengths
Talk about a natural feel for the game, how could someone possibly believe David Ojabo has only been playing football for 5 years? Ojabo has a fantastic combination of height, weight and length to play the OLB position in a 3-4. I wouldn’t discredit his potential to play as a 4-3 WDE either though. Ojabo has a rare blend of explosion off the line and bend to dip around the corner as a pass rusher. He shows excellent ability to change directions and shorten his path to the ball. His first step quickness is fantastic and he gains speed as he continues through his arc. Credit to his D-line coaches in his career so far and his overall ability to take in the information he’s received. I say this because his flow in his pass rush arc looks very developed. He shows a great ability to change speed tempos in his rush to get an OT off-balanced. He’s certainly still raw in his overall set of moves but he flashes impressively at-times. That hesitation move is fantastic, there’s a spin/half spin move, you see an outside dip and rip move, even a ghost move. If you bail hard for his outside speed rush he has more than enough agility to counter inside. Ojabo shows the ability to generate a lot of speed to power, add that with his more than sufficient contact balance and you have a dangerous man as a speed rusher. In other words you can’t just slightly block him to take him off-course, he can fight through the contact. You see a natural ability to counter and flow from one move to the next as well. Oh yeah, by the way, he’s a bit of a ball-hawk as well. He strikes hard at the ball to finish his sacks and often strips it away, he even shows the ability to swipe the ball out while being blocked. It’s really not even just a flash in the pan as far as his production goes, he was pretty damn consistent at getting pressure in the games I watched, his sacks came in big moments as well and helped turn the tide for his team. As a run defender, I can’t really say he was terrible but he has a lot of room to improve in that area. He flashed the ability to play strong at the point of attack when his technique was sound. He wasn’t overly aggressive taking himself out of plays and he was overall able to play with good gap integrity. He won’t be blocked by TEs consistently. His explosive speed to the ball allows him to make plenty of plays down the line, sideline to sideline and leads to backfield production. Day 1 I believe he comes in and is a difference maker as a pass rush specialist. Year 2-3+, you could have one of the best pass rushers in the league and a plus run defender as a 3-4 OLB. He can be dynamic as a rusher in a 4-3 DE but his overall lack of size would limit his potential in the run game.
Weaknesses/Room for Improvement
The weaknesses are obvious and they’re all fixable with time. Ojabo can be a little inconsistent with his get-off, this is attributed to false steps. You have to take into account a little bit as to why he wasn’t on the field for early downs. How far away is he from being an every down player? All-in-all I never got the feeling that he was a liability in the run game but it’s clear that’s where his biggest development lies. He can play too high at times, losing the leverage battle and this leads to him getting driven off the ball. You wonder how strong of an anchor he truly has. Ojabo has a naturally powerful set of hands but his hand placement and move-set is lacking at this time. I question his ability to hold the point of attack and disengage from blockers. He can be slow to disengage in the run game. There’s times where if he gets blocked initially, he will stay blocked and not really show much resistance to fight through it. Ojabo has fantastic length but he doesn’t always use it to his best ability. Just overall comfort is lacking in the run game at this time but he shows potential to be a serviceable run defender if not a disruptive one. There’s so much potential in Ojabo as a pass rusher, he can of course continue to develop his hand fighting. I think Ojabo has enough power to where he doesn’t have to be strictly a speed rusher. I would love to see him develop some bull-rush and other power moves, he did flash a one arm stab in the run game but I didn’t see it used as a rusher. His length should become more of a factor in his game as a pass rusher as well. You worry about his lack of mass for most 4-3 schemes and he may get pushed around. There’s really not any physical limitations with Ojabo, he just needs more experience and time playing the game. I’ll be very surprised if he doesn’t turn into a big time pass rusher.
Scheme Fit
3-4 OLB is his best chance to be an impact every down player but as a pass rush specialist he could play in any scheme as an edge rusher.
Round Grade
1st Round