Larry Ogunjobi is one of the Cleveland Browns’ most prominent pending free agents this offseason. The big defensive tackle has been a starter for the last three seasons, flashing impressive athletic ability and racking up at least 46 tackles each year.
He knows both he and the Browns have a decision to make on his future. Ogunjobi seems pretty philosophical and open-minded about possibly changing teams, based on his season-ended press conference on Wednesday. He doesn’t seem fazed by the uncertainty.
“Your normal emotions, you want to be like feeling a certain type of way, that’s just human nature. Uncertainty kind of brings that,” Ogunjobi said via Zoom. “But at the same time, I feel like you can look at uncertainty with optimism. You just never know where you could be, how good it could be for you. I feel like the hard work and dedication and the grind, it’s going to all take care of itself.”
Ogunjobi continued,
“I don’t want to seem like a Debbie Downer,” he said, noting he’s still disappointed about the Browns’ loss to Kansas City in the AFC divisional round. “I’m just very chill, and I am obviously reflecting on the game still. I’m very optimistic. I feel like a lot of my family and my friends are way more optimistic than me because they know how I get after games.
“When you look at your journey, your process, the things that you have done and how the team has been able to be turned around, it’s just an amazing experience. The opportunity now to set my family up for generations and just change my life entirely, it’s amazing. It’s different.”
It will not be cheap to keep Ogunjobi in Cleveland. Spotrac estimates his market value at $9.3 million per year, a hefty sum for a player coming off the least-productive season since his 2017 rookie campaign. Ogunjobi did not make the list of the top 100 free agents from Pro Football Focus.