I was thinking about what I should put in the intro of this piece and the first thing that came to mind was something about Ojabo’s background and the length of time he’s been playing football. I couldn’t remember exactly what the story was off the top of my head so I pulled up the Hello post—something I don’t like to do until after I’ve written up the scouting portion to limit confirmation bias—and I am so, so glad I did. It was worth it for this paragraph alone:

Ojabo took a unique path to his Michigan pledge. Here's how his head coach describes his journey to playing football in the first place:

“(David Ojabo) was born in Nigeria, then he moved to Scotland when he was about seven, eight-years-old,” Saylor said. “Parents live in Scotland now but goes back and forth from Scotland to Nigeria – works for Shell Oil.

“He came to Blair Academy two years ago. As a junior, he played basketball and soccer. He was on the basketball team with [2018 top-100 Penn State DE] Jayson (Oweh), saw how Jayson was blowing up, came into my office and said, ‘hey coach. I’m more athletic and I’m tougher than Jayson. Do you mind if I play football next year?’ He’s 6-5, 240-pounds. I looked at him and said, ‘Oh yeah. You can play some football next year.’

But Ace followed that with this golden nugget:

Ojabo doesn't appear to lack confidence, nor should he: after his first year playing football, he picked up over 30 scholarship offers. As his stock blew up, so did his phone—but not quite in the way he wanted, he told The Wolverine's Andrew Vailliencourt:

“I’m not going to lie, when I look at my text messages, there’s no girls in there, it’s all coaches, so it’s kind of stressful,” Ojabo said. “It’ll be good to get it over with, but it’s a good problem to have.”

I cannot fathom having the kind of confidence that allows someone to look at a teammate and be like, wow, I guess I should play some football, can’t be very hard if they let that weenie play and having the weenie guy be a freaking top-100 recruit who’s known in Penn State circles for his freakish speed and athleticism. To the tape!

[After THE JUMP: The tape! Scouting, too]

David Ojabo Every-Snap Film

Ojabo is #71, lines up almost exclusively at 3T, and wears an American flag sleeve on his right arm

Scouting Notes

[00:00] O-lineman’s hands get under pads, Ojabo is lifted and blown out, but then he ragdolls the guy as he’s being driven backward. Some raw strength there.

[00:28] Quick first step. Gets blocked inside, but smart to get over the top with some depth as he sees the run get outside.

[00:34] Not set on snap but quick enough that he hits the inside gap before the two linemen tasked with down blocking him can get there, leaving them lunging.

[1:08] Off the line a step ahead of everyone else, then runs into a pile of linemen on the inside. Doesn’t use his hands, seems to just run through guys at this point.

[1:14] Guard pulls and Ojabo shoots the gap before the tackle can get over a step to get his hands into Ojabo. Has a shot at the RB but doesn’t break down; stay high, misses with a one-armed swipe, and the back is gone.

[1:28] Gets from outside to inside the guard ridiculously fast and is through the interior gap and free thanks to one long stride.

[1:40] Tries to step around the guard again but the guard makes contact thanks in part to a chip from the tackle. Ojabo sees the running back headed for his gap and tries to pull him down with his free outside arm.

[1:49] Pretty clear now that he’s going to beat the tackle inside whenever the tackle is tasked with him one-on-one. Also clear that Ojabo comes off the line fairly high. He flashes into the backfield here clearly anticipating a handoff, which he’s in good position to stick. Not thinking QB dive.

[2:09] Stands up too quickly

[2:15] Long legs, long stride;  uses outside foot to plant and push off of to get inside the guard. Too strong to be stopped once he’s in line with the lineman. Closes gap between himself and the QB in a flash.

[2:22] OL gets hands under pads and knocks Ojabo back. This next part is a little deep in the trenches to see perfectly but it looks like he then sheds the block with one arm. The center tries to push Ojabo down the line in the direction he’s already running, so that essentially does nothing. Ojabo locks onto the QB as he starts to break the pocket, then shows off crazy straight-line speed to get to the QB and spin him down.

[2:30] He’s too high again, but he takes contact and slips the inside gap again and assists on the stop.

[2:58] Ojabo drops an extra yard off the line and it gives him an extra head of steam on a twist, which, like, good luck, high school linemen. He’s in the gap the running back looks to first, so the QB pulls the ball. Ojabo reads this and shows off not just excellent speed but excellent speed off a change in direction, so it seems he’s not just fast when running in a straight line.

[3:38] He’s lower than the OL at the point of contact and it allows him to bull rush his way through the block and to the QB.

[4:04] Another time they’ve dropped him off the line to let him get into a stunt with speed. Says something about his technique at the line (and also about his speed)

[4:22] Stays low.

[4:56] The last few plays have shown that they’re able to get Ojabo to stand straight up by throwing a down block at him; once he gets contact from the side, he’s vertical and not a pass-rush threat. He’s shown at 4:30 and the play here that his contribution to the play isn’t necessarily done at that point, though. On this play he does a nice job sticking with the play as the ball moves to the opposite side of the field and he times and targets the correct spot the ball carrier will be on the hash.

[5:15] Stays low as the down block hits him and is able to move the OL back as a result.

[5:23] Wide-eyes emoji goes here. Explodes upward, drives the OL back, sheds his hands, and twists the QB. Best play on the tape thus far.

[5:32] OL leans too far forward and Ojabo may be more upright but he’s also stronger and can run through the block and into the backfield.

[5:41] Shaky cam appropriately channels monster movies here. Looks like they tried to down block him again, but Ojabo is off the line and has his hands on the OL first. He knocks the OL back and clears his path to the backfield, skies to bat the ball down, then the lands at the feet of the QB, who’s still holding the ball. Running is the QB’s only option, throwing the ball away the only thing that makes sense.

[5:52] Stands up immediately but shoots the gap because he doesn’t stop running on contact anymore.

[6:04] Pulling the guard in front of Ojabo on the goal line is a bad idea. He’s through the gap in a split second, forcing the tackle to hold.

[6:43] Stands up, gets caved, big lane for QB.

[6:56] Creates A-gap pressure.

[7:14] Comes free on a stunt. Unfortunate blown tire stops him from sacking the QB, but he shows off his speed again.

[7:23] A little too high but a little lower than usual. Reason to note this play is the display of strength; he moves guys when he has just a bit of leverage.

[7:54] Just a lot going on here. First, he looks like he’s almost bending backward at the point of attack. I know, I know, the issue is established at this point. Just feels like I have to mention it. Professional standards and all, I guess. Second, the strength is on display again. He extends his arms, peeling the OL off and shoving him back. Third, the QB sees who’s in the lane he’s running in and cuts hard to avoid Ojabo, in turn opening himself up to a hard hit from the side without gaining any additional yards.

[8:14] Same play as earlier: first step is wide, pushes off with strength, has enough upper body strength and speed to push through the interior gap and generate pressure.

[9:13] Beats the slant but that has him a step off the path of the back; adjusts, but doesn’t get his hands on the back.

[9:23] He does a pretty good job tracking what’s going on in the backfield for a guy who has only played football for two years.

[9:31] Perfect example of his potential. Devastating speed and power that need technique to harness them.

[10:02] He could be deadly with the push-pull move Ryan Glasgow was so good at when he learns how to use his hands better. At this level he can just run through a gap most of the time (down blocks aside).

[10:33] Pretty nice spin move.

[10:55] Looks like a nicely executed push-pull to me. He would have made the tackle, too, if not for getting blown up by a Lawrenceville player as he lowered for the hit.

[11:13] I think that’s an attempted swim move?

Summary

Any scouting report on Ojabo is going to be prefaced with something about how he’s still learning the game, and I’m falling in line here because my two primary critiques—he stands up too quickly too often and has primitive pass-rush skills—are things that come with time. He has played football for two years. My second year of soccer my parents were still trying to bribe me with Micro Machines to get out of the car and go to practice. I don’t see any reason that he won’t be able to pick those things up with more time on task.

Ojabo’s upside is vast and obvious. Every coach mentioned him in press conferences this spring, and Don Brown mentioned finding roles for him this season. His athleticism puts him years ahead of where you could reasonably expect someone with his level of experience to be. Ojabo has an excellent first step. He generates a great deal of speed off said step without requiring time to accelerate and was able to use this to shoot gaps with regularity. Ojabo’s rapid acceleration turns into straight-line speed without a hitch and helps erase large swaths of turf quickly, and this makes him ideally suited for weak-side defensive end. His large frame could handle more weight, but he’s already very strong as is; Ojabo won a number of reps even when his leverage was poor, and linemen had no chance when he got his hands on them with good leverage. Ojabo did a nice job tracking what was happening in the backfield while engaged with linemen, and he anticipated where to be to stop a ball carrier from hitting the open field.

There were some targeting issues when closing on a player in the backfield. That’s not surprising given “standing up early” as a primary issue to address, plus one of Ojabo’s highlight tapes shows that it usually works out for him. There was a stark difference in the reps where Ojabo had poor pad level and the ones where he was lower than his opponent; when he stayed low, he did not just win the rep but dominated. I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that the key to what he does in college is how long it takes him to learn to stay low.