The New York Giants traded a 2028 seventh-round pick to the Baltimore Ravens for C.J. Okoye. The 6-foot-6, 365-pound defensive lineman was part of the International Pathway Program and spent much of the 2025 season on the Ravens’ active roster, where he played 214 snaps for John Harbaugh.
New York had interest and ensured that Okoye was a New York Giant prior to final cuts. As expected, Okoye was on the Giants’ 53-man roster. Here are some highlights of Okoye from the preseason:
C.J. Okoye wears No.
97 and 91 in the plays below
A few things are evident on tape. For starters, he’s massive. Some outlets have him listed at 370 pounds. He has long 33¾-inch arms and just under 10-inch hands.
Okoye has some serious push at the point of attack, and he generates good force into his bull-rush. His rush repertoire is based on the bull-rush to push the pocket, which is his primary move, but he does a good job getting his eyes on the quarterback and adjusting mid-play. There’s no doubting his strength, especially when he keeps his hips and pads low.
The combination he landed against Washington was mpressive for Okoye, who is still a young player learning the position. He landed a hump-move and transitioned it into a club swim against a reaching guard off the play-action. The pass was somehow completed, but the rush showed a finesse game that — if mastered — would make Okoye a dangerous threat on the defensive line.
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Here’s a play from the regular season where Okoye drew a holding penalty based on the aforementioned push and lower-body drive that he possesses. He’s also solid with his vision and awareness; he keeps his eyes open when rushing to cut angles off against mobile quarterbacks who try to escape the pocket.
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Okoye showed exceptional awareness by pushing the pocket and closing throwing lanes with his long wingspan. His eyes are an underrated trait, especially for a player who is relatively new to football.
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Okoye displayed a solid anchor against one-on-one blocks last year. Above, we watch him use his awareness and vision to locate Chase Brown (30) in the hole. The B-Gap opened up, and Okoye was able to close it from the A, while hand fighting the center.
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Okoye gets a good jump off the snap and catches, neutralizing the center’s blocking attempt, forcing the football to bounce inside and into a waiting defender. Okoye has solid regular-season reps on a talented team, and he’ll fit into the Giants rotation well.
Concerns
Okoye is a massive man who plays high at times, allowing blockers to control/steer him too frequently. When he plays low, though, he’s difficult to move. But that high nature can be a liability. The zone looks, specifically, where Okoye gets his feet moving laterally, have led to blocks where he gets displaced due to his high nature. It happened a few times versus the Bengals last season:
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Okoye can field double teams and anchor, but he was displaced a few times on tape due to the pad-level issue.
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Final thoughts
Planet theory — the Giants traded for a massive human being with potential and familiarity to their coaching staff. When precise with his technique and pad level, Okoye is almost immovable in one-on-one blocks, with a solid ability to anchor in the ground, but staying low is an issue for the 6-6 defensive lineman. Still, he’s a high-processing player with excellent push into contact, and he’s flashed adroit hand usage and has strung some moves together, albeit I wouldn’t count on him being a pass-rushing specialist.
Okoye will be a rotational defensive lineman for the Giants; one who will battle for snaps with Bobby Jameson-Travis and Darius Alexander. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Okoye earns the number three defensive tackle role behind veterans D.J. Reader and Shelby Harris (not including Chauncey Golston). It was a good trade to get Harbaugh a familiar player at a position of need. Okoye is still only 24years old.
