The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Team prepared to lose Ogunjobi as free agent
Larry Ogunjobi came a long way from 12 years ago when he was a 350-pound sack of couch potatoes.
Larry Ogunjobi has come a long way from the days 12 years ago when he was a 350-pound sack of couch potatoes hooked on strawberry pop tarts and video games.
Ogunjobi will officially hit free agency at 4:01 p.m. March 17 after four years playing defensive tackle for the Browns.
The fact he will likely have another employer before the end of next week has nothing to do with Coach Kevin Stefanski not wanting Ogunjobi back.
It has everything to do with what the Browns can and cannot afford as they try to build on their 2020 success in a year when the salary cap is going backward from $198 million to around $180 million.
According to spotrac.com, Ogunjobi has a market value averaging $9.3 million a year for three years despite the website ranking him only 18th among 2021 free-agent defensive tackles.
He made $2,133,000 with the Browns in 2020 in the final year of his rookie contract.
“The opportunity now to set my family up for generations and just change my life entirely is amazing,” Ogunjobi said on Zoom after the Browns were eliminated by the Chiefs in the playoffs. “I feel like a lot of times with people, the unknown can be a great thing. It can be a bad thing or it can just be a thing, but it’s just a lot to take in all at once.
“It’s different than when you’re younger; you post your post ‘Be back next year’ and all of that kind of stuff. When you don’t know, it’s definitely a different feeling, but it’s exciting. It’s a new chapter regardless of whether it’s here or somewhere else.”
Ogunjobi played 15 games in 2020. He was in on 46 tackles, 2.5 sacks and had six quarterback hits. He started 47 of the 60 games he played over four seasons and totaled 180 tackles with 14.5 sacks and two forced fumbles.
It is not a huge statistical void that must be filled if Ogunjobi does move on. In fact, second-year player Jordan Elliott, a third-round draft pick in 2020, could be the one to take Ogunjobi’s starting spot on the defensive line.
“With Jordan, I was really pleased with how he came along,” Stefanski said March 2 on Zoom. “He was a young player and was very, very eager to learn and very eager to do it the right way. He practiced hard. He got in some games and maybe 16 snaps (in one game) and then maybe the next week the matchup didn’t call for him to play as much.
“He was somebody that we brought along. I think he’s trending absolutely in the right direction. This is a big offseason for him to take that jump from Year 1 to Year 2.”
Elliott, 6-foot-4, 304 pounds, played in all 16 games with one start in 2020. He made 15 tackles with no sacks.
Ogunjobi said he would like to re-sign with the Browns. Sashi Brown was running the football operation in 2017 when he drafted Ogunjobi in the third round, making him the first player ever drafted from UNC Charlotte.
“I love this city,” he said. “I love the fans, and I love being a Brown.
“At the same time once again, I understand the business aspect of it as far as making sure my family is straight and being in a position to set them up for an extremely long amount of time. I’m going to pray about it, talk to God about it and talk to my family about it and really just go from there.”
Turn the calendar back to 2009 when Ogunjobi was 15 years old. The closest he got to football at that age was playing Madden on his Xbox. His mother, Mercy Ogonjobi, was worried his weight and inactivity would lead to diabetes.
Ogunjobi’s parents took away his game system and hired a personal trainer for their son. That didn’t help. Then one day, his father, Larry Ogunjobi Sr., took his son and daughter, Faith, to a park to play and get some exercise.
A football coach from the area named Robert Mitchell happened to be at the park and spotted the Ogunjobi group. Mitchell convinced the elder Ogunjobi he could help his son.
Larry was not persuaded easily, but he went out for the football team as a freshman, eventually lost 100 pounds, put good weight back on and got a football scholarship to Charlotte, where he majored in biology and computer science. He wants to go back to college to become an oncologist when he finishes playing football to honor his grandfather, who passed away from prostate cancer in 2007.
It is fair to wonder, would Larry Ogunjobi’s path in life be different had his father taken him and his sister to a different park that day 12 years ago? Or if Robert Mitchell didn’t happen to be there at the same time?
No one can say for certain. But what is certain is Ogunjobi’s life is about to turn again.