Emmanuel Ogbah (Bush) and Xavien Howard (Wheatley) get call in 2nd round.
Emmanuel Ogbah will now face NFL offensive linemen after spending the past three seasons taking on Big 12 big men, but the 2012 Bush graduate doesn’t consider that his biggest learning curve in shifting from colleges to the pros.
“The biggest part about transitioning to the NFL will be just having all of that money,” an honest Ogbah said. “I’ve never had that kind of money before, so I don’t know what I’ll be able to do with it.”
The Cleveland Browns will ensure he figures it out. The Browns selected Ogbah, the top defensive lineman of the Mike Gundy era at Oklahoma State, with the first selection of the second round (32nd overall) of the NFL draft on Friday night. Ogbah watched the draft, held in Chicago, from his home in Houston and celebrated with his family and friends when his name was called.
“When I was younger, I used to watch a lot of Michael Strahan, and I kind of modeled my game after him,” Ogbah said of his fellow Houstonian who attended Westbury and Texas Southern. “He was a relentless pass rusher with speed and power, and those are combos I (like to) use when I pass rush.”
Ogbah was hoping to become the first OSU defensive lineman selected in the first round since Kevin Williams in 2003, but his name wasn’t called on Thursday with the first 31 selections. He didn’t wait long on Friday, however, before receiving a call from the Browns.
Ogbah (6-4, 273) was the Big 12’s defensive player of the year as a junior in 2015 after leading the league in sacks with 12½ and wrapping up his three-year career with 28 total.
“He’s a candidate to be a linebacker in a three-down scheme,” new Browns coach Hue Jackson said of whether Ogbah will play outside linebacker or rush end in a 3-4 scheme. “He has that kind of versatility and that kind of skill set. We drafted him because he can do both of those things well.”
Dolphins take Baylor’s Howard
Xavien Howard first made his name at Wheatley, enhanced it at Baylor as a standout cornerback, and now it’s on the minds of Miami Dolphins fans.
The Dolphins selected Howard in the second round, as the 38th overall pick. Howard, who had a year of eligibility remaining at Baylor, collected 10 interceptions over a three-year career in Waco, including five in 2015.
Miami traded up four spots in the draft with the Ravens, who received a fourth-round selection in this year’s draft in return, to snag Howard. A multisport athlete at Wheatley, Howard played both quar- terback and cornerback in high school, earning all-state honors as a defensive back before deciding to sign with coach Art Briles and the Bears.
Cardinals select A&M’s Williams
About a year ago, Texas A&M coaches convinced Brandon Williams to skip on being a skinny running back and give being a swift cornerback a try.
After one season on defense, Williams developed into a third-round selection in the NFL draft. Arizona somewhat surprisingly selected Williams as the 92nd overall selection, as the third round wound down.
Williams has run (and backpedaled) on a long, winding road to get to this point. He was a five-star running back prospect out of Brookshire’s Royal in the class of 2011 and signed with Oklahoma.
He played a season at running back for the Sooners, before transferring to A&M to get closer to family, and then sat out the 2012 season. He never really developed as a standout running back at A&M, and the Aggies needed quality cornerbacks last season under new defensive coordinator John Chavis.