BEREA: Apparently, mother knows best — at least for defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi.
Drafted by the Browns in the third round (No. 65 overall), the 6-foot-3, 305-pound lineman, began playing football after his mother and a coach forced him.
Like any teenager, Ogunjobi enjoyed a healthy diet of video game play — Halo and Call of Duty were the favorites on hisXbox — which contributed weight balloon to over 350 pounds.
“It’s God, man. I just have been blessed to be in this position. I know what it’s like to start form the ground up,” Ogunjobi said when asked about his transformation from coach potato to proportionately chiseled rock. “It is like you become a veteran just to become a rookie again. It is interesting, but I’m just blessed. It has been a really good transformation to see the hard work and long hours pay off.”
He eventually hopes to be able to use what he’s learned to help children who suffer from obesity.
His mother, Mercy, can take some credit as well. She saw what her son had become and hired a personal trainer, who worked on whipping him into shape.
Although soccer is better known in the family’s native country of Nigeria, it isn’t the sport of choice in America. That made the decision easy. Despite Larry having that interest and having played summer basketball, football was the choice.
The game worked magic for Larry, who eventually landed in college at tiny Charlotte.
“I’m going to say I’m so thankful to God. I’m going to use the word thankful,” Mercy Ogunjobi said when asked if she were proud of her son for losing the weight. “I’m very thankful to God. I feel so blessed ... It could have gone the other way — diabetic and all the other things that come with that, but now we’re here.”
The reality of her son’s success only recently hit her.
“When they invited him to the program — the combine, the Senior Bowl — then we started thinking something good, something better could come out of this,” she said.
The transformation gave Larry Ogunjobi plenty of confidence, even as he toiled for Charlotte. He thought he could eventually play in the NFL.
“I think it was always in the back of my mind, but we began to move up in competition and started playing bigger schools,” he said.
“When I first got recruited to go to Charlotte, their pitch was, ‘We are going to play FBS in two years and we are going to move up.’ That was an opportunity for me that I could move up against the so-called best competition and put myself on the map.”
Mission accomplished in more ways than one. Teams noticed and Browns coach Hue Jackson has definitely taken note.
“He’s beautiful,” Jackson said during the wrap-up press conference. “He’s big. He’s strong. He’s tough. He has great initial quickness. He can knock guys back and I think he’s going to be a tremendous football player with us.”
DB chemistry
Howard Wilson, the Houston cornerback the Browns selected in the fourth round, knows who Joe Haden is.
He also let it be known that he’s already acquainted with first-round selection Jabrill Peppers.
“Me and him got some chemistry going on. I like the way he plays,” Wilson said via teleconference Saturday.
Wilson’s primary strength is that he’s a ball hawk. He intercepted five passes in his final season at Houston and earned American Athletic Conference first-team honors after returning from a 2015 ACL injury.
“I just have a natural ability to take the ball away, so when I sat that year out it made me love the game more, made me cherish it, not take it for granted,” he said. “I was playing every play as if it was my last and any time I had the opportunity to get the ball, that’s what I was going to do.”
Wilson doesn’t lack confidence. He said he doesn’t expect to have any problems playing cornerback in the NFL.
“That’s my job. I’m supposed to be able to live on an island,” he said. “Really, I like when quarterbacks throw it my way anyway; it means I got a good opportunity to pick the ball off. I like getting picks and I like that the league is a passing league.”
Shots fired
Former five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver and NFL Network analyst Steve Smith made it known he’s not a member of Brock Osweiler’s fan club.
Smith ripped Osweiler, the quarterback whom the Browns acquired in March as part of a salary-dump trade with the Houston Texans, when he argued on the air with NFL Network analyst Charley Casserly on Friday before the Browns drafted Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer in the second round (No. 52 overall).
The exchange began when Casserly said he wasn’t sold on Kizer or California quarterback Davis Webb, whom the New York Giants eventually drafted at No. 87, as a long-term answer.
“I don’t know they’re better than Brock Osweiler,” Casserly said.
Smith fired back with, “anybody is better than Brock Osweiler.”
Citing Osweiler’s starting record of 13-8 with the Denver Broncos and Texans, Casserly said, “Osweiler has a winning record.”
Smith: “Yeah, he does. He sure does. That’s why Houston got rid of him.”
Casserly: “Well, you paid him $18 million. He’s not worth that.”
Smith: “[The Texans] gave him to Goodwill and Goodwill is trying to get rid of him.”
Smith then conceded he’s not convinced Kizer or Webb is a long-term solution at quarterback, but he still insisted the Browns needed to get a quarterback.
“You’ve got to do something because if you don’t, everybody’s going to be unemployed,” Smith said. “Somebody’s got to throw to somebody.”
And in Smith’s mind, Osweiler shouldn’t be the one doing the throwing.
New left tackle?
The Browns drafted tackle Rod Johnson, who played at Florida State with Browns tackle Cameron Erving, in the fifth round.
“We will start him off at left tackle. You are looking at a 6-7, 300-pound tackle with the movement skills to play on the left side,” vice president of player personnel Andrew Berry said. “We will start him off there. He has played his entire career there at Florida State. We will see where he goes from that point.”
No, current left tackle Joe Thomas isn’t going anywhere.
“He will keep playing at a Hall of Fame level for the Cleveland Browns,” Berry said of Thomas.
Taking advantage
The Browns drafted three players who participated in the 2017 Senior Bowl — Ogunjobi, kicker Zane Gonzalez and running back Matthew Dayes. Hue Jackson and his staff coached in the game. Obviously, they paid attention.
“Absolutely. We did,” he said. “Anytime you get a chance to be hands on with those players prior to the combine, like we were coaching in the Senior Bowl, that’s an advantage for us.”
Contract unsettled
Starting running back Isaiah Crowell has yet to sign his tender as a restricted free agent. The deadline for him to sign an offer sheet from another team has passed, so he’s essentially stuck with the Browns for the upcoming season.
“Isaiah will come in and sign his tender at the time he deems fit,” head of football operations Sashi Brown said.
Crowell will make about $2.7 million with the Browns in 2017, provided he plays under the tender as expected.
Still waiting
Local players Jerome Lane Jr. and Se’Von Pittman, who both at the University of Akron, went undrafted. They could be among the legion of post-draft signees … Former UA defensive end Jamal Marcus signed as an undrafted free agent with the Browns, according to a report.