Ojabo’s emotional exclamation of good fortune when he was selected added a little extra impetus due to the trials and tribulations he had to endure along the way, most notably tearing his Achilles tendon just weeks before the draft.
Although some suspect the injury may have affected his draft stock — some pundits predicted he would be a first-round pick — given the wonders of modernity, the Ravens may have pulled off a masterful coup when they fell to the second round Science and Recovery Plans.
And for a player looking to navigate the league, it couldn’t have been a better fit for Ojabo. His high school teammate Odafe Oweh was selected by the Ravens in the first round of last year’s draft, and the team’s new defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald was Ojabo’s defensive coordinator at Michigan.
“Everything that happens to me in this life is not me,” said the 22-year-old. “I just live by my script.
“From where I should go, that’s not my destiny. I should obviously go here. What are the odds Coach Mike (Macdonald) all come one year, we go crazy in Michigan, win the Big Ten and then next year I go to the league and follow him.
“It’s not a coincidence. So I don’t worry in this life, man. I just live it day by day.”
A young man who only started the sport five years ago has already achieved so much.
determination
Born in football-loving Nigeria, Ojabo moved to Scotland with his family when he was seven to take up his father’s job as an engineer.
And in the UK, Ojabo thrived and discovered his love for the sport. Together with his brother, he learned both football and basketball.
Although his brother was the “main athlete in the family” when he was young, Obajo is the one who takes athletics seriously enough to make it a professional career.
“Now (my brother) is more on the smart side and I kind of took over,” he explained.
When he turned 15, to improve his chances of becoming an elite football or basketball player, Ojabo decided to move to the United States to enroll in high schools and colleges with programs that might better support his development.
But despite his best plans, his fate soon changed.
While serving a career at his high school, Blair Academy in New Jersey, Ojabo sat in the front row when he saw current Ravens teammate Oweh “explode” at American football.
Oweh, who was a year older than Ojabo, subsequently signed to Penn State to play college football before finally being drafted by the Ravens in the first round of the 2021 NFL draft with their 31st overall pick.
And so, in 2017, at the age of 17 — much later than most would — Ojabo tried his hand at American football.
The rest, they say, is history.
Adapt and thrive
Learning a new sport, especially one with so many differences from the ones he grew up with, was difficult.
“I mean, the hardest thing is making contact first,” he said. “Almost every sport is different than football, hence the helmet. It’s a head-to-head race. That was definitely the biggest transition for me.”
Despite having to learn a “whole new sport” with new rules and a “new style of play”, Ojabo took him into the water like a duck.
After his freshman year in high school football, Ojabo received 35 scholarship offers from colleges – including some of the most prestigious programs in the country. Then it was a matter of visiting the schools and choosing which one would best suit his needs, both academically and athletically.
On the advice of his family, Ojabo chose the University of Michigan. “We all know that Michigan is the best school in the country,” he said. “And then of course the football team that plays for coach (Jim) Harbaugh and the biggest stadium in the country, you can’t really miss that.”
Though he wore a redshirt his freshman year — the act of delaying attendance to extend college-level eligibility — and was a reserve in 2020 when he got the opportunity to be a starter, he jumped at it both hands.
In a 2021 breakout season, Ojabo played on the other side of the defensive line against No. 2 overall pick in the 2022 draft, Aidan Hutchinson, showing off his explosive athleticism and skill with a total of 11 sacks and five forced fumbles as he dressed on the card as one of the top defense prospects in the country.
At the end of the season, he decided to put himself forward for the draft in order to make the final leap into the NFL.
Ojabo recalled the drafting process — being scouted by teams and having draft experts discuss your strengths and weaknesses — as “definitely exciting” and “also humbling.”
“You know you’re part of that small percentile of people who get picked up and acknowledged to move to the next level. So it’s a blessing all the time,” he said.
But just as things got rolling, disaster struck.
bad luck
For Ojabo, Saturday March 19th went as well as he could have imagined.
The linebacker, along with his Michigan Wolverines teammates, demonstrated their athletic and ball skills to the assembled NFL scouts and coaches at the school’s Pro Day.
But midway through his practice, driving the ball he had just caught, Ojabo collapsed to the ground and clutched his left ankle.
It was later confirmed that he had torn his Achilles tendon. Ojabo recalled being “shocked” by the first injury of his career.
Just days later, Ojabo underwent surgery to repair the damage, but his future was now bleak.
It had originally been predicted that he would be selected in the first round. But after that injury it was harder to predict.
It was an agonizing first day of the draft as Ojabo had to wait. His phone didn’t ring. He recalled sitting and waiting, “terrified.”
But on Friday, April 29, his phone finally buzzed. On the other end was Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta, who told Ojabo that Baltimore would pick him with the 45th draft pick.
“There is no feeling in this world that really compares: This is your destiny that has just been decided in front of the whole world. If you’re just feeling this phone vibrate, you’re constantly seeing all these highlights on YouTube, but actually experiencing it yourself was something else. It was a blessing.”
Reunited with his high school teammate, who plays for his old college defense coordinator and his college coach’s older brother — John Harbaugh — Baltimore is like a second home for Ojabo.
Despite his Achilles injury, Ojabo is hoping to make a difference in his rookie year as he looks to return sometime next season. He cites the Los Angeles Rams running back Cam Akers last season when he was returning from a similar injury six months after his injury.
But reflecting on his career so far, Ojabo said despite being a second-round rookie in the NFL, he was just getting started.
“I see myself as one of one, just in the way I play. After all, I’ve only been playing for five years. So I study on the side and try to figure it out.”