INDIANAPOLIS – The Eagles could face a dilemma if two top defensive ends are available at their three first-round spots in the NFL draft.
Both Purdue’s George Karlaftis and Michigan’s David Ojabo grew up overseas and are relatively new to football with neither playing it until high school.
They have the potential to get much better than they are, and that makes them enticing with the Eagles holding picks Nos. 15, 16 and 19.
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That’s something Ojabo’s teammate, Aidan Hutchinson, who’s expected to be one the top picks in the draft, noted on Friday at the NFL scouting combine.
“Every game you watch David play, from Week 1 to the last game, he progressed so much,” Hutchinson said. “And it’s honestly so impressive. We’ll be in meetings, and he’ll ask a question about football. And I’ll look at him like, ‘How do you not know that?’
“It’s pretty funny. I laugh about it. But that just goes to show me how much potential he has … He’s still learning so much about the game.”
But the Eagles could prefer someone to step in right away, and it’s not known if either Ojabo or Karlaftis can handle a full load as rookies.
The Eagles could make it work if they draft either Ojabo or Karlaftis or both, while adding a free agent for depth. That way, either player can work his way into the rotation.
Either way, the Eagles will need to do something at defensive line during the offseason, something general manager Howie Roseman mentioned this week at the combine.
Derek Barnett will become a free agent when the new league year begins March 16, and he isn’t expected back. Neither is Ryan Kerrigan, who was a disappointment last season. Brandon Graham will turn 34 next month and he’s coming off a torn Achilles that ended his 2021 season after two games.
That leaves the Eagles with Graham and Josh Sweat, who tied for the team lead with 7.5 sacks last season, as the only dependable returnees.
As a team, The Eagles were second to last in the NFL with just 29 sacks.
“The bottom line is we didn’t get enough pressure on the quarterback,” Roseman said. “It’s a priority to us. We’ll have opportunities this offseason to do it, and I would be very surprised if we didn’t do something there.”
It’s possible that Jermaine Johnson at Florida State could be a candidate for one of the first-round picks as well.
But Johnson brings questions, too.
He began his collegiate career at Independence Community College in Kansas, and he was featured on the third season of the Netflix series ‘Last Chance U.’ From there, Johnson went to Georgia, where he had 6.5 sacks in 16 games over two seasons.
Johnson left Georgia for Florida State and blossomed with 11.5 sacks this season. Georgia won a national championship last season without Johnson, while Florida State was an underwhelming 5-7 and was not invited to a bowl game.
Johnson proclaimed himself “the best edge rusher in the draft” that includes Hutchinson, Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux, Ojabo, Karlaftis, and ex-Georgia teammate Travon Walker.
That may or may not be true, but he also knows NFL teams might not be sold on him just yet.
“I think the only question mark on me is that I’ve had just one solid year of really good production,” Johnson said. “That’s a question mark. But if I had the same snaps (at Georgia), I would’ve done the same thing.”
One could argue that Johnson had the chance to have those snaps at Georgia, but didn’t take advantage.
Ojabo and Karlaftis, at least, took advantage of their chances, even if they had to start from square one.
Ojabo lived in Nigeria until he was 7, then moved to Scotland when he was 15 before coming to the United States for his junior year in high school. That was the first time he played football.
He played basketball, soccer and ran track before coming to the United States.
Before this season at Michigan, he had played in only one game. Then Ojabo had 11 sacks last season, second on the team to Hutchinson’s 13.5.
“The toughest thing was definitely the contact aspect,” Ojabo said about learning football. “Coming from basketball, if you bump someone too hard, that’s a foul. Soccer, if you bump someone too hard, it’s a foul.
“Football, if you’re not bumping somebody, you’re not playing.”
It’s similar with Karlaftis. He lived in Greece until he was 13, and grew up playing water polo.
In fact, he was a goalie on the under-16 national team at 13, and said: “I was damn good at it, too.” His workouts consisted of treading water while holding a chair above his head.
But Karlaftis’ father died and his mother moved them back to her home in Indiana, to be closer to her family. That’s when Karlaftis started playing football for the first time.
“I didn’t know anything about the game really,” Karlaftis said. “I was just kind of relying on my athletic ability, my natural instinct. I didn’t know what a first down was, how to get in a stance, or how to throw a spiral – and I really still can’t throw a spiral.”
Karlaftis doesn’t have to worry about that as much as sacking the guy who can throw spirals.
Karlaftis said it took him about a year to fully understand the rules and how to play. And that was evident at Purdue, where he blossomed into one of the top defensive linemen in the Big Ten, even with only 4.5 sacks.
There is plenty of room for each to grow. The Eagles might have to decide if it’s worth waiting for that development even though they might need production now. Then again, the Eagles can get that short-term production in other ways.
“I think when you look at this league, the most important thing is consistency over time,” Roseman said. “It’s not being flash-in-the-pans. (It’s) doing things and getting better.”
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
