From Framingham State to NFL: Seahawks rookie Joshua Onujiogu realizes dream in Arizona
The bass was roaring through the room, shaking its walls and everyone in it. Veteran Seahawks defensive players were smiling and joking around him.
In the front corner of the visiting locker room beneath State Farm Stadium Sunday evening, rookie Joshua Onujiogu was beaming. His smile was as wide as his locker at which he was sitting.
“I’ve been telling everybody: That’s probably the most fun I’ve had. In my life,” Onujiogu said.
He laughed again. It matched the vibe of his first-place Seahawks (6-3) winning again, 31-21 over the Arizona Cardinals in the desert for their fourth consecutive victory.
Saturday, the Seahawks promoted Onujiogu from their practice squad. It added depth to a position missing injured outside linebacker Darrell Taylor again this past weekend.
Sunday, the 24-year-old undrafted rookie made his NFL debut.
That only begins to tell Onujiogu’s story of making it.
“Even though everything was stacked against me, I still kept pushing,” he said.
“I told everybody that I was going to make it here one day. When everybody said ‘There’s no way, I said: ‘There is a way!’”
That way is one of the most unlikely in the sport.
Five- and four-star college recruits who starred at Alabama, Ohio State, USC, Texas and the world’s best pro-football preparatory programs dominate the NFL.
Onujiogu made it here all the way from Division-III Framingham State. The school is in Massachusetts, his home state.
Framingham State has an undergraduate enrollment of 3,200. It has a 44-56% split of men and women. Framingham State has six varsity men’s sports. Its campus is west of Boston, an hour north of Onujiogu’s hometown of Wareham on the edge of lower Cape Cod.
The 6-foot-2, 252-pound linebacker was the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference defensive player of the year last season. He was one of only two Division-III players to sign an NFL contract this year. As usual, no D-III players went among the 259 selections in this past spring’s draft. He signed as a rookie free agent, the longest of long shots.
His athleticism impressed Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt during training camp this summer, but not enough to make the 53-man roster. Seattle cut him at the end of the preseason. Carroll, Hurtt and general manager John Schneider knew he would likely clear waivers; few other teams knew of him.
After no other NFL club claimed him, the Seahawks signed Onujiogu back to their practice squad Sept. 1.
“Josh is a stud,” Hurtt said in August. “Heavy-handed kid. Violent how he plays the game. And, again, another guy we look forward to continuing to develop and come along. But he’s done some nice things when he’s gotten his opportunities.”
He got the biggest one of his life Sunday.
A year to the day after he had four sacks in a dominant win over Bridgewater State at 3,500-seat Bowditch Field in Framingham, Onujiogu was chasing Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray, the first-overall pick in the 2019 draft out of mighty Oklahoma, across a 63,000-seat NFL stadium.
Wearing Seahawks neon-green cleats, Onujiogu entered at outside linebacker in the first quarter. He lined up off the defense’s right edge and rushed Murray into an incomplete pass. But a penalty negated the play. So, officially, Onujiogu had yet to play in an NFL game.
“I mean, I didn’t even know what was happening. My head was spinning,” he said, smiling again.
He re-entered in the second quarter. On his first official play, Onujiogu dropped into coverage in the left flat, then ran up the field to tackle Arizona running back Eno Benjamin after his third-down catch. His first official play, his first career tackle.
He’d made it.
Onujiogu (pronounced oh-noo-JIH-oh-go) started the second defensive drive of the second half. He was closing in on Murray before a sack by Seattle’s opposite outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu.
He played 11 snaps in all on defense, six more on special teams.
That’s 17 more plays than he’s been told he’d have in the NFL, way back when he started dreaming about this as a grade-schooler in Wareham.
“Oh, it’s always been a realistic dream of mine,” he said. “Actually, instead of a dream it turned into a goal. Like, I’ve been working for it since I was in high school.”
He’s made his bid to play again Sunday, across the world, against Tom Brady when the Seahawks play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-5) in Munich.
Yes, it’s a tad far from Farmingham State.
“Hey, I had three tackles today!” Onujiogu said Sunday night in Arizona, grinning yet again. “It was fun.
“I just made sure I listened to my keys. Practice was good. I just...I had a great time.”
This story was originally published November 7, 2022 at 10:55 AM with the headline "From Framingham State to NFL: Seahawks rookie Joshua Onujiogu realizes dream in Arizona."
