david ojabo

The third straight EDGE Hello, today we have the most diamond-in-the-rough-esque guy yet: French prospect Aymeric Koumba. His name was on no one's radar at the start of 2022, largely because he lives in France. Then he attended a camp down in Georgia a couple months back that Mike Elston happened to be at. Elston watched him, got ahold of the measurables, and a quick and tidy pursuit was on, even while many scouting services are struggling to figure out who the hell Koumba is. Going to be an interesting writeup today: 

GURU RATINGS

Riveting! Every site to offer a size measurement is giving the same thing, because they're all working off the same information. On3 is the only one to even attempt a grade at this point, and it may be a bit of time before the others give it a shot. How much Koumba will rise in the rankings between now and signing day will largely hinge on whether he goes to any more camps, and how much more film he puts out for scouts to be using. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Do you like French pterodactyls?]

We've got two EDGE hellos to get through and we'll go accomplish them in chronological order. First up is Collins Acheampong, a native of Ghana who is slated to play HS football at Santa Margarita Catholic in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA (after a recent transfer). Acheampong is a 4* prospect who Michigan had to battle with Miami over to nail down, eventually having "transformational" win out over "transactional" (for once). He's raw, hyper-athletic, and oozing with upside, making this maybe my favorite Hello so far: 

GURU RATINGS

Last row is Seth's conversion to a five-star scale. Links are to profiles

Acheampong is a composite 4* prospect, with ESPN being the highest on him (we'll get to that in a minute), while On3 and 24/7 haven't quite raised him up their board to the same degree yet. The measurements in the top row are pretty similar on height, with Acheampong's 6/7-6/8 frame being ideal for a high upside EDGE, while there is some sizable disagreement on his weight. 24/7 and On3 have him a good bit heavier than the other two but that's a matter of recency for their rankings. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Another Ojabo?]

Hello, fan of an NFL team. MGoBlog excruciatingly scouts every Michigan play, and scores them to inform our coverage. Since mi atleta es su atleta now, here we share what we're sharing.

Quickly: Explosive edge-bender, developing run defender.

Draft Projection: Before the injury he was tracking to be the trendy high-upside edge that some team jumps at in the mid-1st round. Now he could be in the 2nd round or later. I doubt he'll last so long, but if teams worried about an Achilles tear are letting him drop to the 40s, as long as your team can afford to take a swing this is a very good pitch.

NFL Comp: I came up with Ziggy Ansah—explosive foreign player who was mostly a situational rusher in college to draft and develop. NFL.com came up with Cliff Avril, which I'm grateful for because that's one (Purdue/Lions) we're fairly familiar with, though Ojabo is taller and faster with great length; Avril's was average, but people also underrated him as a run defender.

What's his story? Ojabo was born in Nigeria but moved to Scotland when he was seven, and he grew up there until coming to the States for a year of high school. As you might imagine, he was SUPER DUPER raw, having only recently tried football after playing soccer and basketball (like HS teammate Odafe Oweh), and was an obvious redshirt in 2019. The pandemic hit when Ojabo was back in Scotland, and he got trapped there in a quarantine situation, unable to practice or develop much. He got back to Ann Arbor for fall camp but not in time to develop into a viable player. When 2021 started Ojabo was still considered a wild card, and they worked him into the lineup slowly, the third guy in a rotation of edge defenders opposite Hutchinson that varied by package.

Ojabo's breakout came against Wisconsin, Michigan's fifth game, when Ojabo contributing 2.5 sacks (+15/-3 in our charting), including the knockout punch to Graham Mertz, by teleporting around the Badgers' tackles. He continued to feast against all comers as a pass-rusher, inspiring a weekly bit in UFR where I'd switch to a Scottish accent to discuss things he was doing to pass protections that were too uncouth for the Queen's English. Ojabo had to develop in real time in dropbacks, which kept him off the field when Michigan went to their 3-4 looks.

Later opponents used this tendency, playing more TEs to keep Ojabo off the field; he saw just 17, 32, and 26 snaps against Indiana, Iowa, and Georgia. Unable to profit from NIL he declared when he was given a 1st round grade, then suffered an Achilles tear at Michigan's Pro Day.

Positives: Ceiling here is massive if the injury heals. Has legit 4.5 speed and can accelerate to that very quickly. Ideal measurables. Surprisingly developed as a pass-rusher, with an assortment of tricks. Very focused player with zero off-field concerns. Could have drawn 30 holding calls. Extremely underrated run defender: saw a lot of action as opponents ran away from Hutchinson, but consistently controlled his edge and constricted space. Great at setting an edge or caving a kickout. Never makes the same mistake twice, and mistakes were survivable (just three –2 or worse plays in his career).

Negatives: This was a long-term pick before the injury, which will need all of 2022 to heal, and might. Add that he came to college raw, lost a third of his development time to the pandemic, and left after just three years, and the team that drafts Ojabo probably has to carry him two contract years before they see the fruits of it. Still developing in real time, e.g. he struggled against zone reads in Game 4 but made no more mistakes all season, and who knows what Michigan was hiding him from.