Eagles defensive tackle Moro Ojomo picked up his first-career sack on Sunday in the fourth quarter of a playoff win, in the snow against Matthew Stafford.
And he’s been hearing it from his teammates.
“Finally! I’ve been telling him, like, finally,” Milton Williams said with a laugh. “It took him 18, 19 weeks to get it.”
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Ojomo was due.
In a way, it was pretty surprising that Ojomo hadn’t yet gotten his first NFL sack. Because the second-year seventh-round pick from Texas has played well all season and gave the Eagles quality snaps as a member of their defensive tackle rotation. Ojomo this season played 388 snaps and generated 23 pressures, which was fifth on the team behind just Jalen Carter, Josh Sweat, Williams and Nolan Smith.
“He’s been close. He’s been close,” Williams said. “We’d been on him a couple times, like, ‘You gotta get one, dawg.’ It was good to see him finally get one.”
After all of his quality snaps this season, the only thing left for Ojomo to do was to get his first sack — but he didn’t let that pursuit take over.
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“I think that I tried not to focus on that,” Ojomo said. “I tried to just have a positive mentality and just tried to go at it the same way. The dam broke. Just keep working at it.”
Ojomo’s sack against the Rams was a huge play. He took down Stafford for a loss of 7 yards on first down to help the Eagles force a three-and-out in the fourth quarter. It came the series before Saquon Barkley broke that 78-yard touchdown run.
On the rush where Ojomo finally got home, all of his snaps next to Carter paid off. When he saw that Carter's path opened up a rush lane, Ojomo took it. The Eagles talked all week about converting their pressures when the Rams used play action and that came to fruition on this play. Ojomo compared it to when defensive backs understand how to play in space with one another.
“It felt good, man,” Carter said. “Moro been hunting all year. We’ve been waiting on him to get one. I think pretty much everybody got one. He got close a couple times. When he got it, we was all excited.”
Ojomo, 23, was a seventh-round pick (No. 249 overall) last year. As a rookie, he flashed in training camp and made the Eagles’ roster. But he didn’t get to play much in 2023; he got just 68 defensive snaps over 8 games.
In his second training camp, it seemed much more obvious that Ojomo was going to factor into the Eagles’ defensive tackle rotation. He ended up playing 388 snaps this season, the exact same amount as former first-round pick Jordan Davis and behind just Carter and Williams in the rotation.
“I just wanted to constantly improve,” Ojomo said. “I think one of the things I pride myself on is getting better every single year. I feel like that’s been since I was in junior high. That was the plan.”
To accomplish that plan took a lot of work from Ojomo but it was also a team effort with new defensive line coach Clint Hurtt, as well as player development assistants Matt Leo and Patrick McDowell. Ojomo even credited his teammates, especially Carter. He said playing with an All-Pro caliber player raises the level of play for everyone.
But, as Nick Sirianni always says when there’s improvement like this, the player deserves most of the credit.
“I always see him putting in work, going hard just to perfect his craft every day,” Williams said. “When he gets his opportunity on the field, he’s showing it too. I was just happy for him. That first [sack], you gonna remember that forever.”
The one thing we’ve seen from defensive coordinator Vic Fangio this season is that he’s going to play the players he thinks give the Eagles the best chance to win. That’s why he has the Eagles’ highest-paid free agent, Bryce Huff, on the bench in the playoffs.
So to see how significant Ojomo’s role has been even in the playoffs is a true testament to how well the young defensive tackle has played.
“Mo has really done a nice job with the snaps he's got over the last few months,” Fangio said. “We have total confidence in him when we're in there. Nothing changes. He's got some athleticism. He seems to show up.”
Ojomo showed up in a big way against the Rams. His first-career sack helped the Eagles advance to the NFC Championship Game.
And he is ready for another shot to bring down Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels.
“I hope it’s going to be rocking — 100 percent excited,” Ojomo said. “We’re 1-1 (against Washington) and we get a chance to win the series. I don’t think there’s another team we would have wanted more.”
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