PHILADELPHIA – There probably has never been a team in NFL history so flush with defensive players from one school but that is how the Eagles defense has been built with Azeez Ojulari becoming the seventh member from the University of Georgia.
“We all share that brotherhood and the relationship we have is amazing,” said Ojulari, the Eagles’ latest free agent addition who spoke via video call on Wednesday morning. “I’m ready to be here now.”
The pass rusher from the New York Giants will join several young Bulldogs on a defense that finished first in the league last year and throttled the Kansas City Chiefs to win Super Bowl LIX just last month. Ojulari will now have the chance to reconnect with Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter, Nakobe Dean, Nolan Smith, and Kelee Ringo after signing a one-year, $4 million deal after four years with the New York Giants.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “Having that chemistry and that brotherhood with those guys before, it’s just amazing to come back here and keep it going on. It’s amazing just to have those guys again.”
Ojulari said he is particularly close to Smith since they shared a meeting room together since both play the same outside linebacker/edge rusher position.
The issue with Ojualri has been his inability to stay healthy. Following a rookie season in which he played all 17 games with 13 starts and collected eight sacks, he played just seven games the following year. He didn’t play more than 11 in the two years after that. Most of his injury time has been of the soft-tissue variety, though he didn’t want to get too much into the time he missed.
“I’m blessed with this opportunity to play in the National Football League and taking it one day at a time thanking God that I could come back from these things and just keep pushing myself to never give up and work hard every single day and continue to try to take care of my body and keep pushing myself to improve and get back healthy,” he said. “I try to stay positive with these things because the future you never know what it holds so you have to keep pushing.”
The Eagles training staff gets a lot of credit for keeping players healthy to navigate a full season, and perhaps he will learn from his teammates that sometimes you have to play through certain ailments. It was a lesson Mekhi Gardner said he learned during his one year with the Eagles.
If he can stay healthy, Ojulari could end up as this season’s one-year wonder like Becton and Zack Baun were. Becton didn’t parlay his one-year contract with the Eagles into a longer-term deal to stay in Philly, but he earned a two-year deal worth $20M from the L.A. Chargers. Baun turned his one-year contract into a three-year deal to return worth up to $51M.
“I’m just happy to have this opportunity to come out here,” he said. “I’m gonna be ready to compete and learn and play with my brothers again. It (the free agency process) was good. I let my agent do all the work and he did a great job. Now I’m here and ready to work.
“I’m just trying to do my job when I get out on the field. Whatever happens, happens. I just do it to the best of my ability. It’s always exciting to make plays and I’m excited to be here now and make plays with the Eagles and win games.”
