Ruke Orhorhoro, DL Clemson: 2024 NFL Draft Profile

Orhorhoro was a three-star recruit from River Rouge High School in River Rouge, Mich. in the class of 2019

The Clemson Tigers open their football season today against Duke. Redshirt senior defensive tackle Ruke Orhorhoro figures to see more action alongside Tyler Davis this season. Orhorhoro will be a quality third round or early day three selection in the 2024 NFL Draft.

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Ruke Orhorhoro, DL Clemson: 2024 NFL Draft Profile

Classification: Redshirt senior defensive tackle from Lagos, Nigeria

Background: Orhorhoro was a three-star recruit from River Rouge High School in River Rouge, Mich. in the class of 2019. He was the No. 730 recruit according to 247Sports and No. 740 for On3.com. Orhorhoro was an unranked three-star recruit for Rivals and an unranked three-star recruit for ESPN with a 78 grade out of 100. He only played two years of high school football, seeing his first game action in the fall of 2017. Orhorhoro was born in Nigeria and came to the United States when he was nine years old. As a high school senior, he amassed 60 tackles, including 22 tackles for loss, and 13 sacks. Orhorhoro played basketball in high school, averaging a double-double as a sophomore. He has three cousins who played or are still playing football in college or the NFL. Cornerback Michael Ojemudia attended Iowa and was a third round pick for the Denver Broncos in 2020. Mario Ojemudia played football at Michigan as a defensive end from 2012-15. Linebacker and edge rusher Ovie Oghoufo transferred from Notre Dame to Texas for 2021 and will play for LSU In 2023. Orhorhoro completed micro-internships with Synnex in 2019 and Adobe in 2022. He was born on Oct. 13, 2001.

Injuries & Off-Field: Missed eight games in 2020 with a meniscus tear, missed 2023 spring practices after an operation on his shoulder

Awards: 2022 Honorable Mention All-ACC, 2022 Third Team All-ACC (PFF)

Pros: Special teams experience on the punt return, punt coverage, field goal block, and field goal units, arm length, athletic frame, fires off the line with a low pad level, flashes of impressive quickness off the line, initial step sometimes allows him to cross the lineman’s face, gets upfield quickly, gets skinny to shoot gaps, decent pop in hands, drives linemen back when he engages his hands early, long-arm move, working on a club move, chains a swipe with a rip move, uses arm length to create separation and redirect to the football, some success driving single blockers backward against the run and causing a bubble in the backfield

Cons: Age, lacks the mass to hold point of attack consistently, must add weight to lower half, doesn’t offer much against double teams, spends too much time stuck on blocks, needs to develop counters to lineman’s clamp, struggled to break clamps with counters against Florida State (2022), needs to get his hands up and fire into the lineman’s chest sooner, doesn’t maximize arm length, feet need to be more active, contact balance could improve, lacks bend and high-end agility, pass rush plan is a work in progress, pinballs around off linemen with lack of clear direction, hand swipes lack timing and precision, bull rush stalls, swim move is slow, spin move is slow and mechanical, lacks agility to match mobile quarterbacks, quarterbacks escape his grasp because he tries to tackle too high, gets tunnel vision on the lineman in front of him

Overview: Orhorhoro has special teams experience on the punt return, punt coverage, field goal block, and field goal units. Clemson aligns him everywhere from 0-tech to 5-tech, but he’s clearly most comfortable operating anywhere from 3-tech and beyond. Orhorhoro has quality arm length to pair with an athletic frame. He fires off the line with impressive quickness and a low pad level to out-leverage offensive linemen. The former three-star recruit’s initial step sometimes allows him to cross the lineman’s face. He pushes upfield quickly and will shoot gaps by getting skinny. Orhorhoro offers decent pop in hands and drives linemen back into the pocket when he engages his hands early. His pass rush plan primarily relies on a long-arm move and chaining swipes into rip moves. Orhorhoro is working on a club move, but it isn’t effective yet. The redshirt senior uses his arm length to create separation and redirect to the football. He has some success driving single blockers backward against the run and causing a bubble in the backfield. Unfortunately, Orhorhoro lacks the mass to hold the point of attack consistently. He doesn’t offer much against double teams and must add weight to his lower half to be a more effective run defender. Despite being an older prospect, Orhorhoro hasn’t developed a deep bag of counters to avoid getting stuck on blocks. Orhorhoro currently doesn’t maximize his arm length. Firing his hands into the offensive lineman’s chest sooner will help prevent them from establishing firm positioning. His feet need to be more active, which should improve his contact balance. Orhorhoro lacks the bend and agility to operate as an edge rusher. His pass rush plan is a work in progress. The Nigerian relies heavily on stunts and pinballing around off linemen to apply pressure. His hand swipes lack timing and precision, his bull rush stalls, and his swim and spin moves are too slow and unrefined. Orhorhoro lacks the agility to match mobile quarterbacks. Quarterbacks escape his grasp because he tries to tackle them too high. Orhorhoro gets tunnel vision on the lineman in front of him, which causes him to miss opportunities to contribute in run defense.

Overall, Orhorhoro boasts athletic upside and a build that strength coaches will love to develop, but he didn’t develop a refined set of counters or pass rush moves over his first four seasons at Clemson. Orhorhoro’s splash plays are eye-popping, but he spends too many snaps as a neutral defender who makes a minimal impact.

Role & Scheme Fit: Rotational penetrating 3-tech or base end in a 4-3 defense

Round Projection: Fourth Round

Size: 6'4", 295 lbs. (Unofficial)

Submitted: 07-19-23