In 2022, the Michigan football team will be without one of its premier edge rushers.
David Ojabo — fresh off a breakout season — announced on Twitter Tuesday that he will enter the NFL Draft. The junior edge rusher has appeared in the high first round in many NFL mock drafts, praised for his freakish, if somewhat unpolished, athleticism.
“Coach Harbaugh took a chance on a kid who had only played the sport for a year,” Ojabo wrote in his tweet. “I am eternally grateful for that opportunity. Thank you to the Michigan coaches and staff for accepting me with open arms.”
Ojabo was a key cog in the Wolverines’ unexpected Big Ten championship and College Football Playoff appearance in 2021, tallying 11 sacks in his first season as part of the defense’s regular rotation. Despite playing just 26 total snaps in 2020, Ojabo became part of the most fierce pass rush duo in college football this year, playing across from senior Aidan Hutchinson, the Heisman runner-up and potential top pick in the draft.
The NFL will be the latest stop on an unlikely career path for Ojabo, who was born in Nigeria before moving to Scotland at age seven. He later came to the United States for high school, where he was introduced to the sport of football and became a four-star recruit.
Needless to say, David Ojabo’s story still has much to be written.