Harbaugh said this about Okoye<\/a>:<\/p>\nHe\u2019s a guy that we got to know recently last year, came in, was with the Chargers actually with my brother [Jim] for a couple years in the international program,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cSo a guy who had been a developmental-type guy, learning the game and tremendous physical skills, hard worker, has really dedicated himself over the last few years to learning the game really because he didn\u2019t play it growing up and made great strides, made great strides with Dennis Johnson, our defensive line coach last year. That\u2019s where he kind of broke through and had a really good season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see him as an inside defender, a defensive tackle, A gap, B gap player, run stopper, pocket pusher in terms of the past game and just a really big physical player,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cSo kind of a type of guy we\u2019ve been looking for and we\u2019re really excited to get him up here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Okoye is thrilled to be back under Johnson\u2019s tutelage.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach Dennis, he\u2019s my guy; he\u2019s the one that, like, he\u2019s one of the people that brought, like, that brought CJ out, you know what I mean?,\u201d Okoye said. \u201cSo, yeah, so, I was really happy that I\u2019m coming to a system I knew already.\u201d<\/p>\n
No matter where it is on the defensive line that the Giants ask him to play, Okoye just wants to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, I don\u2019t know [how he will be used] and I don\u2019t care,\u201d Okoye said. \u201cJust line me up, mano a mano. Just line me up. So far as I know the play, if you want me to play anything, anything the team wants, I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Okoye\u2019s journey to the NFL began when he attended an International Pathway Program camp in Africa run by former Giants great Osi Umenyiora.<\/p>\n
Until then, Okoye had been a basketball player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned about football through a movie,\u201d Okoye said.<\/p>\n
The movie? \u2018The Game Plan\u2019 starring Dwayne \u2018The Rock\u2019 Johnson.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when I learned about football,\u201d Okoye said. \u201cI was playing basketball before then, the whole thing, then the camp came, and I didn\u2019t even know, I thought it was like a, that [it] was one of those charity events or something like that, but I went through, made the camp, saw it was real, the rest is history, but I had never played football. My first snap of football was in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n
Okoye was impressive enough that he ended up being allocated to the Los Angeles Chargers for the 2023 season. He spent two seasons learning the game on the Chargers\u2019 practice squad.<\/p>\n
Okoye recorded a sack in his first-ever NFL game, a 2023 preseason contest against the Los Angeles Rams. It is a story he has recounted many times, but Okoye did not know what he had done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was a tackle for loss. I didn\u2019t even know it was a sack because I didn\u2019t know, like I was playing the game,\u201d Okoye said. \u201cI didn\u2019t even know what I was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you have ever watched little kids play basketball and get thoroughly confused when the teams switch ends of the court after halftime, you will empathize with the other \u201cwelcome to the NFL\u201d story Okoye told about that game.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the first quarter, they were switching,\u201d Okoye said. \u201cI\u2019m like, why are you guys switching? I didn\u2019t even know why they were switching. I\u2019m like, okay, we\u2019re switching now. They said, yeah, we switch every quarter. I\u2019m like, okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
Okoye learned something else important that day. He learned he could play football at the highest level despite his inexperience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I can play this game because as someone that had never played, if I can still whoop ass like that, imagine when I have like five, seven years of this,\u201d Okoye said.<\/p>\n
Okoye switched quickly from offensive to defensive line after joining the Chargers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like it better,\u201d Okoye said. \u201cI\u2019d rather be the aggressor than sit and absorb.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d rather just go and knock somebody back than try to absorb somebody knocking me back, you know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019m never going to be satisfied\u2019<\/p>\n
Okoye played 214 defensive snaps and 41 special teams snaps for the Ravens last year, the first regular-season action of his career.<\/p>\n
Entering his fourth season, where does Okoye think he is in terms of his development and understanding?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll say I\u2019m still behind,\u201d Okoye said. \u201cI look at myself like that because I\u2019m playing catch-up. I\u2019m never going to be satisfied, you know what I\u2019m saying? Because I always feel like the person I\u2019m going against went to college, and he\u2019s more prepared than me.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it makes me want to work more. It makes me want to go out there and prove myself, you know what I\u2019m saying? So just because of him going to college, I feel like he, he thinks he got the edge over me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Okoye praised veteran defensive tackles D.J. Reader and Shelby Harris for sharing their knowledge. He said Reader and Harris are \u201cno doubt\u201d more forthcoming with information than his veteran Ravens teammates were.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re both amazing guys,\u201d Okoye said. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m going to learn here more. I\u2019m going to add to my play here more than Baltimore because they\u2019re ready to like give you everything, like as much as you can, as much as you can like learn, they are willing to teach.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Giants, of course, are hoping that Okoye\u2019s ascension continues and that he becomes a true force on their defensive line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J \u2014 NFL players don\u2019t usually admit to reading the tea leaves and trying to figure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,7692,8144,11,10],"class_list":["post-343619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-giants-analysis","tag-new-york-giants-news","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}