Michael Ojemudia - 2020 NFL Draft Scouting Report

Michael Ojemudia had an interesting career at Iowa. It seemed as if Iowa fans always had a cornerback they liked more than Ojemudia to take the starting job until his senior season where he was clearly the man on the outside. He became a starter his sophomore year and although there were some shifts and shake-ups, by the end of the year, he would always find his way to the top. Finally, in his senior year, he became the guy teams did not want to throw to as he did an excellent job of shutting down his side of the field. I took a look at his games against USC, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

To start off, let’s take a look at Ojemudia’s combine performance to get an idea of his athleticism.

What you see here is good, not great, but for an Iowa player, that is a huge victory as the Iowa Hawkeyes are never known for their athletic prowess. He’s got great size, good speed, and below average agility.

What you’re going to see with Ojemudia is very good instincts. 

On this play, the USC quarterback’s throw behind the receiver makes Ojemudia look a tad later than he actually was as he had an angle on where the ball would have led the receiver as opposed to being behind the receiver. Even if the receiver makes the catch, Ojemudia is right there to stop him from getting a first down.

I think the biggest thing from the USC game is the stat sheet. He was primarily put up against Michael Pittman Jr., who is a likely day two pick who had over 100 catches and 1200 yards on the season including 37 catches, 430 yards and three touchdowns in the three previous games. Against Iowa, he was held to six receptions and 53 yards, zero touchdowns. Even with that meager stat line, 17 of those yards came on a catch over the middle where Ojemudia had passed him off to a teammate in zone coverage.

He is a very willing tackler.

Sure, I’d like to see him wrap up on that one, but sometimes just laying the hammer down is good enough.

Ojemudia’s biggest knock is just giving too much cushion to receivers.

The Michigan passing game is not big on deep threats, so you’d like to see him play that a little bit tighter, but as someone who has watched every snap of the last 20 years of Iowa football, that is how Iowa designs their coverages a lot of times so it’s tough to fault him too much for situations like this.

It was painful for me to watch, and that’s why I am not including any clips of the Wisconsin game where Ojemudia really struggled. He failed to contain the edge on an end around, got beat deep, and was exploited for some first downs when he gave too much cushion. 

With the athletic profile, he is going to be a scheme player. If you put him in man-to-man coverage consistently, he could struggle as he does not have great change-of-direction skills. But in a zone scheme, he’s big, strong and has very good instincts breaking on the ball so he has potential to be a starter. With that skill-set, there is also the potential that he moves to free safety which has been a common move for many former Iowa cornerbacks and has proved fairly successful. 

Still, the lack of agility does show up on the game film, and I think it will be a major hindrance for him in the pros. I think he’s likely to be a day three pick who is going to have to make an impact on special teams early on but could turn into a starter down the line. The floor is high, the ceiling is low, but considering the progress he’s made throughout his college career, I wouldn’t count him out from continuing to improve.

Previous Scouting Reports
1. Tua Tagavailoa - Alabama
2. Joe Burrow - LSU
3. Jordan Love - Utah State
4. Justin Herbert - Oregon
5. Nate Stanley - Iowa
6. Tristan Wirfs - Iowa
7. AJ Epenesa - Iowa
8. Geno Stone - Iowa
9. Michael Ojemudia - Iowa