UCLA DE Owamagbe Odighizuwa NFL Draft Scouting Report
Based on the numbers he put up at UCLA, you wouldn’t expect Bruins defensive end Owamagbe Odighizuwa to be the type of explosive athlete he actually is. The numbers don’t do any justice to the game I saw on tape from the player that I’m affectionately calling ‘The Alphabet’ since seemingly all 26 letters are at some point included in his name.
This guy is an absolute freak of nature athletically and physically. Let’s take a closer look at someone who is quickly becoming one of my favorite prospects in this year’s class.
Measurables
Strengths
This guy absolutely lives in the backfield.
It was hard for me to find a weakness in his game, to be honest. If I could lay out all the things Odighizuwa does well in intimate detail, we might be here all day.
This is a guy that converts speed to power, he has a phenomenal burst off the snap, and he plays with great leverage. You want to see defensive ends learn to play with good pad level, but a player with the length and hand strength of Odighizuwa to play with the type of leverage that he does is a treat to watch.
Offensive linemen are being moved around like chess pieces by this guy.
You see these types of effort plays all the time from Odighizuwa, which is another one of his best traits — the relentlessness and tenacity you need to be a top-level defensive end in the NFL.
This is a guy who plays with quickness, power, who gets his hands inside offensive linemen, and he has a variety of moves he can use to make plays in the backfield or cause major problems for quarterbacks. The sack numbers don’t reflect it, but in the games I’ve watched, whenever a quarterback drops back to pass, the play is affected in some way or another by Odighizuwa, and he’s remarkably efficient.
He has long arms, big strong hands, and he uses both of those in tandem to beat offensive linemen both from the edge and from the interior.
This guy knows his strengths, and he uses them to near perfection to dominate his opponent.
Weaknesses
In short, not many.
Odighizuwa played in a 3-4 base defense at UCLA, so he’s not an experienced edge rusher like Vic Beasley or anything, but that’s not really his game. In the NFL, he’s going to need scheme versatility and I think he has it. He has the power to play inside or outside.
The major red flag with Odighizuwa is his medical. He has had two surgeries on his hip that required him to sit out the entire 2013 season. The other negative that scouts have is a lack of statistical production, but again, that doesn’t necessarily always show up.
Teams are going to make sure everything is checked off medically before making a significant investment in this guy, but that’s really all there is to it for me.
I’m also not sure about how well he plays in coverage or in space. He doesn’t have a ton of experience in that regard. That isn’t a major knock for me either, however, because I don’t think he should be asked to do anything like that anyway.
NFL Scheme Fit
3-4 DE/OLB
4-3 DE/DT
Round Projection
I think ultimately, some team will pull the trigger in the first round. He has the look of a top 15-20 player and perhaps even a top three grade overall in this year’s edge rusher class, one that is absolutely full of talent at the top.
He is a future star in the NFL and someone who I would absolutely want on my team. His ability to wreck plays is astounding to me, and I can’t wait to see what he can do in an NFL defense with the best coaches in the world pouring into him.
If he can stay healthy, this guy will get under-drafted.
Prospect Video