Julian Okwara walked off the field at Wallace Wade Stadium on Nov. 9 expecting the best. Notre Dame’s senior defensive end, who entered last season with All-American expectations, had just had his left leg tangled in a pile while pressuring Duke’s quarterback. Okwara felt pain, but not enough to consider that his college career might have just ended.
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After he sat down on the bench, though, things began to go downhill. First came the swelling. Then he let team doctors know about it. Okwara would get an X-ray that night that would reveal a fracture in his left fibula. He couldn’t walk for a month. He couldn’t train for three. His Notre Dame career was over. His NFL combine workout would be limited to the bench press.
“That’s not how you envision your senior year to go about,” Okwara said. “The plane ride home that night, I was up the whole time thinking about it. It could have been worse. I could have been in a position where I wasn’t healthy and wouldn’t be able to play next season. I’m just being grateful that it wasn’t that bad of an injury.”
Okwara has seen worse, part of the reason he should bring prior knowledge to the NFL, even before he plays a snap for the Detroit Lions after going in the third round of the NFL Draft on Friday. Okwara’s older brother and new teammate is Romeo Okwara, an undrafted free agent pickup for the New York Giants who played well enough for them to earn a $6.8 million contract with the Lions.
During Romeo’s senior year at Notre Dame, he teamed with linebacker Jaylon Smith, whose college career ended with a brutal knee injury in the Fiesta Bowl that included nerve damage, triggering a drop from the top five to the second round. Okwara understands it could have been worse than a broken fibula because he’s seen worse happen to a Notre Dame player before.
The questions Okwara will have to answer with the Lions are more about production than mentality. As a junior, Okwara posted 12.5 tackles for loss and eight sacks, which didn’t include 21 quarterback hurries. Regardless of the subjectivity of quarterback hurries, Okwara was a terror off the edge while working within the same unit as first-round pick Jerry Tillery.
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But Okwara’s senior production had dropped off even before the injury. He finished with just four sacks (three against Virginia and one against Bowling Green). In marquee games against Georgia, USC and Michigan combined, Okwara posted one solo tackle and zero TFLs.
“There was definitely a drop-off from what I saw personally when I critiqued myself after the season with things I could do better,” Okwara said. “There’s stuff that I know I can improve on. It’s just a matter of getting the right coaching and doing all that stuff in the NFL. I’m looking forward to just being the best player I can be.”
Even if Okwara’s college career ended on a down note, its totality should encourage Detroit that he can improve over a longer arc. Okwara arrived at Notre Dame as a 210-pound prospect whose future depended as much on his weight room gains as his pass rush. The weight came slowly, but it accentuated Okwara’s natural strength that showed in 27 bench reps at the NFL combine.
Okwara never had a pro day to show his recovery from that broken leg, but he was confident of running a competitive time fitting of an early-round pick. He’ll have to wait until training camp to show that speed, but like just about everything else in Okwara’s career, the pass rusher feels like a good bet.
(Photo: Joe Robbins / Getty Images)
