As training camp opened on Wednesday, one of the biggest surprises to come out of the first practice was 2023 undrafted free agent and offensive tackle John Ojukwu being named among the players who are getting significant early reps in the competition for starting right tackle.
Jamarco Jones was unsurprisingly named the other, which came as zero surprise since he’s been projected to be the in-house favorite since right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere was suspended.
Now, that’s not to say it’s a total shock Ojukwu is in the running for the temporarily vacant starting role, but I don’t think anyone could have anticipated he’d be in this good of a position so early on.
Despite going undrafted, Ojukwu has been someone we’ve had our eye on, which led to his being named among the Titans undrafted free agents we believed could make the roster.
JaMarco Jones and John Ojukwu are two in-house RT candidates who will get significant early reps
— Buck Reising (@BuckReising) July 26, 2023
That was partly because multiple draft experts believed he should have been drafted, including our own Shaun Calderon, who wrote this about Ojukwu back in May.
Every year there are a few players who go undrafted that nobody really could’ve predicted, and John Ojukwu is undoubtedly one of those.
I personally had a fifth-round grade on Ojukwu, but there were plenty of others who were even higher on him than that.
Along with Calderon, The Athletic’s Dane Brugler placed a sixth-round grade on him, while The Draft Network’s Damian Parson was even higher on Ojukwu than Brugler, placing a fifth-round value on him.
When asked about the Boise State product after practice, head coach Mike Vrabel spoke glowingly of the 6-foot-6, 310-pound lineman.
“He was probably in the five years, or now going on six, going through that post-draft process of being excited, knew how we played, knew what our demeanor wanted to be,” Vrabel said, per AtoZ Sports. “He’s come in, he’s learned, he’s a smart player, he’s got good length. And so, he shows up and by being out there everyday, we tell them that they can do three things: they can improve, they can take advantage of an opportunity if it’s there and they can be evaluated. So, that’s where he’s at, just getting started.”
Ojukwu’s early rise is even more impressive when you consider the Titans actually drafted a tackle in the sixth round in Jaelyn Duncan, who was not listed alongside Ojukwu and Jones.
For now, it appears Ojukwu is ahead of the Maryland product and is someone we need to be keeping an even closer eye on as training camp progresses.
