The Kansas City Chiefs met with several edge defenders at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.
Among the 45 allotted formal interviews was Notre Dame’s Julian Okwara, a standout pass rusher who found his senior season ended prematurely due to injury. The injury has put a bit of a chip on his shoulder throughout the pre-draft process because he feels that maybe teams have forgotten about him. The Chiefs weren’t one of those teams.
Julian has a unique connection to a coach on the Kansas City staff. His older brother Romeo Okwara entered the league under Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. Romeo worked his way up from an undrafted free agent in his rookie season to starting four games for the Giants. The work ethic Romeo showed served as a positive example for Julian throughout his football career.
“[Romeo] being undrafted, he’s had a different path than me,” Julian said of his brother. “Hopefully I get drafted. He’s just taught to work hard from afar. I think it went unsaid, but just looking at him and the way he went about his business, he had to work every single year he’s been in the league. Him going into his fifth year in the league, that’s not something that’s common for a lot of guys. That’s rare for him and the path we’ve taken coming from Lagos, Nigeria — we don’t expect to be here. I don’t expect to be on this podium right now. I went back there this past summer and there’s a lot of kids just begging for food on the side of the street. I’m just grateful to be here. [I’m grateful] for the sacrifice my parents made for my brother, sister and I.”
Irish alum and current NY Giants DL Romeo Okwara on the sidelines tonight to cheer on his brother, freshman DL Julian Okwara.#NDFamily pic.twitter.com/3WVvoqpBGs
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) October 1, 2016
Romeo is currently playing the Detroit Lions, but as we mentioned earlier he got his start with the Giants playing under Spagnuolo. Julian had a chance to meet with Spags during his formal with Kansas City at the combine.
“Right, it was cool,” Julian told Chiefs Wire. “I had a very good meeting with him. All of those meetings are tough. There’s definitely a lot of pressure in there. But I think that I’m prepared for it. At Notre Dame, you’re forced to know a lot of things, about the defense, about the NFL. You go about your business like a pro. That’s the first thing: Be a pro about your business. I hold myself to a high standard and I’m just ready to be in the NFL. I’m built for this. It’s just the way I’m wired.”
A consistent theme among the players we spoke to at the combine was that the Chiefs’ formal interviews weren’t a walk in the park. They have an idea of the type of players they need to win a championship. So when you walk into a formal meeting with Kansas City it’s business first, detail-oriented and as Utah RB Zack Moss described, “You feel like it’s a hostile environment.”
Julian Okwara fractured his left fibula during Notre Dame’s win over Duke in 2019. It was a game where he felt things were really starting to click for him. He’d even showed improvements in his run defense. He was expected to have a big season as a senior, but unfortunately, the season was cut short.
Okwara wasn’t quite ready to workout in full at the combine in Indianapolis, but he weighed in at 6-feet-4 and 252 pounds with 34 3/8-inch arms. He also put up and impressive 27 bench press repetitions in his lone measurable drill. He’s known to be an exceptional athlete, so putting his workout on hold at the combine was tough for him. However, Okwara expects to be ready to workout in full at Notre Dame’s pro day on April 1. Expect the Chiefs to be among the teams in attendance for his pro day.
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