Giants 2023 Make or Break: Will Azeez Ojulari break out?

NFL training camp starts towards the end of July, which means players around the league are getting their last bits of offseason work in before the real work of trying to make the roster begins. 

For certain players, this season is what some may call “Make or Break,” meaning they need to put together a productive year or they could be looking for employment elsewhere at the end of the 2023-24 campaign. 

We’ll highlight those players for the Giants, wrapping up this series with defensive end Azeez Ojulari.

2022 Stats

- Seven games (five starts) 

- 14 tackles, three tackles for loss, one pass defensed 

- 5.5 sacks, seven quarterback hits, three forced fumbles, one fumble recovery

Why Make or Break?

This is a big year for Ojulari, who has been productive whenever he was on the field but missed some time in 2022. If he could establish himself as a viable threat to rack up double-digit sack numbers every year, then he’ll be in prime position to command a big-money extension as he enters the final year of his rookie deal. 

The former second-round pick had eight sacks in his rookie season and 5.5 in just seven games last year. He should get plenty of opportunities to rack up production in 2023 because the Giants lack depth at the defensive end positions.

What will break it?

One of the key factors that prevented Ojulari from having a monster year in 2022 was injuries. He missed 10 games in total last season due to a calf ailment that kept him out of the first two games and then a reoccurrence of that injury in October which landed him on injured reserve for two months. 

That wasn’t his only injury issue, though. He had also missed the start of camp due to a hamstring injury landing him on the non-football injury list and then suffered a quad injury in the postseason. 

On the field, although he’s been a productive pass rusher, Ojulari has been inconsistent against the run. The Giants defense has been in the bottom-10 against the run in Ojulari’s two seasons. 

They may give consideration to some of his reps going to a player like Oshane Ximines, who has been more consistent against the run, or Jihad Ward, who is listed at almost 50 pounds bigger than Ojulari so could hold up better in the trenches.

What will make it?

When he’s been in the lineup, Ojulari has been productive so as long as he gets the opportunity, it could be a huge year for him. Since he managed 5.5 sacks in just seven games last season, a double-digit sack season shouldn’t be out of his reach. The last of those seven games was the season finale when starters were being rested and he only played seven defensive snaps, so it was essentially 5.5 in six games. 

He almost reached double digits as a rookie, racking up a team-high eight sacks in 2021. That season also saw him play 17 games, which hopefully is a good sign that last year’s durability issues were an aberration. 

It’s not just Ojulari’s health that will be a factor in his play. If Leonard Williams, Dexter Lawrence and Kayvon Thibodeaux all stay healthy, then opposing teams will have to pick their poison in terms of who to double-team. That’s certain to leave Ojulari in favorable matchups and flush quarterbacks in his direction so he can clean up. Even though he was playing hurt at times in 2022, Ojulari’s pressure rate was even better than it had been in his rookie season, which is an encouraging sign that he made progress despite the injury-plagued season. 

If the Giants can once again be one of the better teams in the NFC, they’ll be competitive every week and this will force their opponents to throw the ball to compete. This will give Ojulari plenty of chances to make impact plays.