Adetokunbo
Ogundeji.
Adetokunbo
Ogundeji.
Notre Dame· 6'4"· 260 lb· 4.75s 40
"A 6'4", 260-pound Notre Dame five-year edge with 33+" arms, 7 senior-year sacks and a 9.31 RAS — a Round-5 developmental strongside end where length and run defense were the sell, not bend."Pre-draft read
Adetokunbo Ogundeji plays as a strongside 4-3 end or 3-4 five-technique, leveraging his length in a run-first role. He excels at the point of attack with a long, tempo-setting jab-and-toss, using his arms to control tight ends and offensive tackles on down-blocks. He keeps his outside shoulder clean and sets a hard edge against gap runs, maintaining the edge.
As a rusher, he primarily wins with a long-arm and a bull-to-swat counter, converting speed to power. Hand usage is technically sound with heavy, timed extensions, but his pass-rush plan is repetitive, often working outside-in. His pursuit effort is strong, chasing down the line on backside runs.
This prospect best fits a 4-3 four-down front, ideally a wide-9 attacking front that prioritizes length and run support from its edge defenders.
Rotational strongside (right) defensive end Year 1, with a ceiling as an early-down run-stopping starter by Year 3.
Schemes that prioritize speed-to-power rushers or require consistent edge bending from their defensive ends.
A high-floor, high-character run defender who brings length and a mature technical foundation but lacks the high-end pass-rush upside to be a true three-down starter.
Adetokunbo Ogundeji college highlights | 2021 NFL Draft
Notre Dame senior-year cutup with the strongside-end run reps and long-arm wins that drove the Round-5 grade.
Adetokunbo Ogundeji Pro Day Compilation (2021)
Notre Dame pro day workout showing the 9.31 RAS testing profile — forty, jumps, and change-of-direction drills.
Atlanta Falcons Rookie Adetokunbo Ogundeji Ultimate Highlights 2021
Rookie-year Falcons reel from his 10-game starting stretch as Atlanta's Week 1 strongside end.
Adetokunbo Ogundeji entered the 2021 class as a potential strongside end, offering a long, high-effort profile honed over three seasons from a special-teams contributor to a full-time starter. Teams saw a developmental base end with a promising physical profile, marked by his 6'4" stature and 33"-plus arms, suggesting a foundation for a run-first role.
His role at Notre Dame evolved from rotational depth to a primary player, culminating in a 7-sack senior year against a College Football Playoff schedule. While coaches valued his ability to set the edge and hold up against combos, concerns arose from only one year of high-end sack production and a pass-rush plan heavily reliant on length over bend or advanced counters.
Evaluators generally projected him as a Day 3 selection, often in the Rounds 5-6 tier, as a developmental piece focused on run defense. His draft position at pick 182 indicated a bet on his floor and the potential for a rotational edge, acknowledging the trade-off of limited pass-rush upside.
- 01
Play Strength, Frame
Utilizes his 33"+ arms and jump testing as a foundational base end with a desirable frame.
- 02
Run Defense Point of Attack
Establishes a firm edge in run defense using a long, timed jab-and-toss against tight ends and tackles.
- 03
Hand Technique, Long-Arm Rush
Demonstrates refined hand technique with heavy, timed extensions, enabling a functional long-arm rush.
- 04
Motor & Pursuit
Exhibits a consistent high motor and pursuit range, actively chasing the ball down the line on backside runs.
- 05
Team Player, Role Clarity
Acknowledged for football character, accepting developmental roles before becoming a full-time starter.
- 01
Limited Flexibility
Lacks the ankle flexibility and hip-drop necessary to consistently flatten and corner against tackles, limiting speed-to-bend.
- 02
Inconsistent Get-Off
His get-off from the snap does not consistently reflect his timed 40-yard dash, often appearing even or late.
- 03
Repetitive Pass-Rush Plan
Possesses an underdeveloped array of pass-rush counters beyond his primary long-arm, allowing tackles to anchor.
- 04
One-Year Sack Production
Significant sack production appeared primarily in one senior season, raising questions about true skill improvement.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.75sp50
- Vertical
- 32inp50
- Broad jump
- 120inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.17sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.64sp50
- Bench
- 22repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Notre Dame | 13 | 23 | 1.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2019 | Notre Dame | 13 | 34 | 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Notre Dame | 12 | 23 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 38 | 80 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Long, testing-forward strongside end who gave a team two years of rotational snaps and one starter's season before settling into fringe-roster status — the realistic mid-late Round 5 outcome for this build.
Best-case long, technique-first base end who wins with length and hand usage rather than bend and becomes a 6-8 sack starter on early downs — the outcome Atlanta was underwriting.
Length-plus-testing edge whose rush plan never expanded past a couple of moves and who bounced around practice squads after an initial run of starter snaps — the tape-limited downside a Round-5 base end always risks.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Pre-draft context. Ogundeji spent five years at Notre Dame growing into the strongside end job Julian Okwara vacated, tallying 12.5 career sacks with a career-best 7.0 as a senior in 2020 on a Playoff team that reached the ACC Championship. He measured 6'4", 260 with long arms at the Irish pro day and posted a 4.75 forty, 32" vertical, 120" broad, 7.17 three-cone and 4.64 shuttle — a 9.31 RAS that ranked in the top decile of edge testers in the class. The tape was steadier than it was flashy: an assignment-first strongside end who set the edge, held up against tight-end and tackle combos, and mixed in a functional long-arm rush. Board consensus put him in the Rounds 5-6 developmental-edge tier behind the day-two names.
NFL fit — Atlanta. Dean Pees took over the Falcons defense in 2021 and inherited a pass-rush room desperate for length and youth. Ogundeji was drafted at 182 to compete for the strongside 4-3 end job opposite Dante Fowler, and he actually opened his rookie year as a Week 1 starter — the rare Round-5 edge who saw immediate first-team snaps because Atlanta had no better option. He started 10 games as a rookie but produced only 1 sack across 2021-2022 and lost snaps as the Falcons transitioned to Arnold Ebiketie and DeAngelo Malone. Atlanta waived him in the summer of 2023.
Retrospective. Ogundeji cycled through the Bears practice squad in 2023, spent time with the Cardinals in 2024 without cracking a regular-season roster, and settled into the fringe-of-the-league track that most late-round strongside ends end up on. The pick reads as a developmental edge whose length, testing, and run-defense floor bought a rookie start but whose limited pass-rush ceiling — no true bend, no counter arsenal — capped him at rotational depth. The Falcons ultimately got 11 pressures and 1 sack out of the selection.