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Before he suffered a torn Achilles tendon at the Michigan Pro Day, there are some analysts who figured edge defender David Ojabo could be a top 10 pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, maybe even landing with the New York Giants at No. 7.
Now that Ojabo is injured and likely to miss six months or more, it figures that he will fall in the draft. But, how far? Could he fall all the way to the Giants’ second-round selection, 36th overall?
The NFL Mock Draft Database had Ojabo going an average of 10th overall before his injury. That has fallen to 14. How much farther will he fall?
I perused the Inter-Google for thoughts on that, as well as reaching out to a variety of draft analysts. There seems, as you might expect, to be a split of opinion about how much Ojabo’s draft position will be impacted by his injury.
David Ojabo’s injury is very unfortunate but doubt it causes him to slide much on draft day. Most NFL teams we’ve spoken with weren’t expecting immediate production Ojabo’s rookie year. He’s very young football-wise so teams are banking on Years 2-4 developmental high ceiling.
— Jim Nagy (@JimNagy_SB) March 19, 2022
At Yahoo! Sports, Eric Edholm wrote this:
One scouting director Yahoo Sports spoke to Friday night, who assumed but could not confirm Ojabo had suffered a torn Achilles, believes the injury in his left leg could drop him "20 spots or more" because of the time he'll miss and the concern that Achilles injuries sometimes can make recurrence more common and possibly lead to chronic issues.
Drew Boylhart of The Huddle Report said he does not believe Ojabo gets out of Round 1 “mainly because there are too many teams with more than one pick in the first round.”
The Giants (Nos. 5 and 7), New York Jets (4 and 10), Houston Texans (3 and 13), Detroit Lions (2 and 32), Philadelphia Eagles (15, 16 and 19) and Green Bay Packers (22 and 28) all have multiple first-round selections.
Rob Rang of FOX Sports said simply that Ojabo falling to 36 was “unlikely” because he is “too talented.”
Shane Hallam of Draft Countdown said he will have Ojabo going No. 32 (Lions) in his next mock draft. He said he believes Ojabo “could” fall to the Giants at No. 36, but that “teams have been more willing recently to take Achilles guys. I’d still guess late first.”
Ryan Robert of RiseNDraft Scouting said “I think it’s very possible (Ojabo falls to the Giants) with the timing of everything. If it was an ACL, I’d say he still goes R1 but Achilles can get tricky.”
John Douglas Vogel of NFL Sapient said he believes someone like Arnold Ebiketie of Penn State could now jump ahead of Ojabo in the draft pecking order.
So, a mixed bag of opinions. The question for you, Giants fans, is this. If Ojabo does fall to No. 36 would you like to see the Giants select him even though he will miss at least a portion of the 2022 season?
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