Esezi
Otomewo.
Esezi
Otomewo.
Minnesota· 6'5"· 282 lb
Otomewo is a 6-foot-5, 282-pound defensive end built to play heavy. The 34 1/2-inch arms are the defining trait: he extends, keeps blockers off his frame and sets a firm edge against the run, which is why Minnesota started him all thirteen games as a senior.
The pass rush is a work in progress. He converts length into a long arm and occasionally wins with a swipe, but a 5.01 forty and a 7.21 three-cone leave him without the corner-bending speed to threaten a tackle's outside shoulder. His best pass-rush production came as an interior reducer on passing downs, where the extra step he needs to cover ground matters less. Career output of 7.5 sacks in four playing seasons tells the honest story.
Four-man front that plays its ends heavy on early downs and reduces them inside on passing downs, asking for edge integrity rather than one-on-one wins.
Year 1: rotational early-down end and special teams contributor. Ceiling: starting base end who holds the edge and rushes from the inside on third down.
A wide-9 speed-rush scheme that lines its ends up outside the tackle and asks them to win with get-off and bend every passing down.
The arms were always going to be the whole argument.
Esezi Otomewo College Highlights
Team-produced Minnesota reel showing his length, edge setting and interior rush reps.
Highlights: Minnesota Defensive Lineman Esezi Otomewo | 2022 NFL Draft
Conference draft profile cut from his senior season, including the Nebraska safety.
Esezi Otomewo | Minnesota Golden Gophers Defensive Lineman
Extended college cut-up of his snaps across the Big Ten schedule.
Otomewo came out of Ben Davis High in Indianapolis, decommitted from Western Michigan and spent five years at Minnesota, redshirting in 2017 and winning Defensive Scout Team Player of the Year before playing all thirteen games as a freshman in 2018 and earning the program's Outstanding Defensive Freshman award.
The development was slow and steady rather than explosive. He played all thirteen games in 2019 with 22 tackles, five tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks, then appeared in seven games during the shortened 2020 season. His senior year in 2021 was the best of the run: thirteen starts, 30 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, three sacks and a safety, earning honorable mention All-Big Ten and a Senior Bowl invitation. He announced on January 2, 2022 that he was skipping his final year of eligibility.
The file came to 46 games, twenty starts, 81 tackles and 7.5 sacks, which is modest for a four-year Big Ten defender. What scouts bought instead was the measurement chart: 6-foot-5 1/4, 282 pounds, 34 1/2-inch arms and a 35.5-inch vertical, with 21 bench reps. Minnesota took him 165th overall, betting that an NFL strength program and a defined role could turn the frame into a rotational base end.
- 01
Length
34 1/2-inch arms on a 6-foot-5 1/4 frame, the trait that lets him extend, stack and control a blocker rather than absorb contact.
- 02
Edge setting
played the run honestly and held the point as a full-time starter in the Big Ten, the baseline skill for a base defensive end.
- 03
Positional flex
worked outside on early downs and reduced inside on passing downs, giving a defensive coordinator two ways to use him.
- 04
Athletic testing
a 35.5-inch vertical and 21 bench reps at 282 pounds show a legitimate NFL athletic base for a developmental lineman.
- 05
Durability and experience
appeared in 46 games across four playing seasons with no significant missed time, including a full thirteen-start senior year.
- 01
Pass rush production
7.5 sacks across four seasons at a Power Five program, with no year above three, which is the number that defined his draft range.
- 02
Get-off
a 5.01 forty and 1.71 ten-yard split mean he is late off the snap, and NFL tackles set before he arrives.
- 03
Bend
a 7.21 three-cone at his size confirms he cannot flatten around the corner, so his rush must come through the blocker rather than past him.
- 04
Play strength for the interior
at 282 pounds he is light to hold up as a full-time inside reducer, which narrows the role he was drafted into.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Minnesota | 13 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2019 | Minnesota | 13 | 22 | 2.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Minnesota | 7 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Minnesota | 13 | 30 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 46 | 81 | 7.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Games played, starts and the career totals of 81 tackles and 7.5 sacks come from the Minnesota official bio, which also states the tackle counts for 2019, 2020 and 2021 and the tackles for loss in 2019 and 2021. The 2018 tackle figure of 14 is ESPN's and is the number that reconciles the four seasons with the published 81-tackle career total. The 2020 tackles for loss figure comes from the bio's game-by-game notes, and the career tackles for loss total is the sum of the four seasons rather than a published figure. Per-season start counts are not published and are omitted; only the career figure of twenty is documented. Fumble recoveries are not published for any season and are left blank.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Long developmental end who cycles through rotational roles on several teams without carving out a defined job.
Power-based end who eventually becomes a productive starter once the pass-rush plan catches up to the frame.
Big-framed Big Ten end whose lack of production follows him into the NFL and caps him at practice squad work.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Five seasons in, Otomewo has played 21 NFL games across three teams. He debuted for Minnesota in Week 14 of his rookie year and finished with five tackles in five appearances, then the Vikings waived him at the 2023 cutdown. Jacksonville signed him to the practice squad two days later, kept him on a reserve/future deal through 2024 and got four games and four tackles out of him.
Pittsburgh signed him to a one-year contract in March 2025 and it became his most productive season: twelve games, nine tackles and his first full NFL sack. The Steelers re-signed him in March 2026, waived him at final cuts in August and brought him back to the practice squad the next day. Eighteen career tackles and 1.5 sacks is not the return a fifth-round pick is supposed to deliver, but three organizations have now kept him around, which says the length and the professionalism still have value even if the pass rush never arrived.