Surviving Camp, Part 2: Ojomo pulls off the most veteran move ever
Surviving Camp, Part 2: Ojomo pulls off the most veteran move ever originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Over the next few weeks of training camp as the Eagles try to decide who to keep on their 53-man roster, we’ll be catching up weekly with seventh-round defensive tackle Moro Ojomo from Texas. We’ll be tracking his progress as he tries to make the Eagles’ roster.
Part 1: Ojomo soaking up knowledge, paying in snacks
Moro Ojomo is a rookie but he pulled off the most veteran move ever last week.
When we last spoke with the 21-year-old defensive tackle, Ojomo was preparing to perform in front of the entire team in the rookie talent show later that evening. “Pray for me,” he said.
It turns out, that was a little foreshadowing.
Ojomo was in the training room last week and narrowed down his options to two songs: “Marvins Room” by Drake or “Amazing Grace.” He got some good advice and went with the latter.
“No one can boo gospel, right?” Ojomo said. “So I was like, ‘I’m gonna just play it safe.’ Sometimes you just gotta kick the field goal, you know what I mean? You’re gonna go for it on 4th-and-8, 4th-and-10? It’s risky.”
The plan worked. We’ve seen plenty of rookies get booed and ridiculed by the veterans for a subpar performance but that didn’t happen to this rookie. He kicked a field goal and moved on.
While Ojomo’s rendition wasn’t a stand-out performance, he is starting to stand out on the field a little bit.
The Eagles have now had three practices in pads and Ojomo is coming on stronger. Ojomo has done plenty of nice things in team drills, but he’s really started to flash in 1-on-1s against offensive linemen.
“Yeah, I love the 1-on-1s,” he said.
Ojomo has gone against several players so far in 1-on-1s, including Sua Opeta, Dennis Kelly and Tyrese Robinson. Ojomo is far from undefeated but has won his fair share of these matchups and has opened some eyes.
“They’re all great football players,” he said. “Iron sharpens iron but I’m going to compete and I’m going to try to dominate every single snap.”
Even though he’s a rookie, Ojomo explained that film study is “crucial” in preparing for these bouts. “You learn guys,” he said. For instance, offensive linemen show tendencies like throwing hands, so you have to study them and take advantage. He also goes into each day with a plan to do one thing better in these drills than he did the day before.
Does Ojomo have a go-to move?
“Power has to be the foundation of everything,” Ojomo said. “I do think it try to set the tone with ‘I can knock you back 5 to 10 yards.’ A lot of times they’ll try to play it safe, where they’re not playing it right. They’re trying to play the drill. So power allows defensive linemen to keep it honest. If you’re powering him, he’s going to not want to get knocked back every time.”
As far as the pads coming on, that was a welcome sign for Ojomo too. In fact, he seems pretty thrilled about his pads in the NFL and showed them off on Friday. He pointed out that the collar of his jersey sticks to his pads tighter than it did at Texas, which comes in handy when offensive lineman try to grab his jersey.
It’s a good thing Ojomo likes these pads so much because as he was walking off the field after the longest practice of the summer, he heard someone call his name and he turned around. It was six-time Pro Bowler Fletcher Cox ready to hand over his helmet and shoulder pads.
That’s just another element to rookie duties. Carrying the pads of your veteran teammates. Ojomo doesn’t mind, though; he’s being treated well by the vets and is learning a ton from them, especially Cox.
One day, Ojomo might be in Cox’s shoes, helping a fresh-faced rookie learn the ropes.
If that ever happens, Ojomo will have at least one great piece of salient advice: Go with a gospel song.
Goal for next week: “Daily. Just taking steps every single day. My dad always talks about never having a better yesterday, always having a better tomorrow. I feel like that is extremely true of my football career and that is going to be true of my football career going forward.”
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