Mojo Player Spotlight: Chigoziem Okonkwo, TE, Tennessee Titans

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So far on the season, 26 players have at least three receiving plays of 40-plus yards – 25 receivers and one tight end. Those 25 receivers have an average Mojo stock price as of this writing of $16.49, with only Marquez Valdes-Scantling ($8.94), Alec Pierce ($7.64), Darius Slayton ($4.90) and K.J. Hamler ($3.32) under $10. The lone tight end? You can get him for a scant $2.05 a share.

Obviously, long receiving plays aren’t everything. Take out the 130 yards Chigoziem Okonkwo has gained on long receptions, and he has 12 receptions for 145 yards for the season. But when a player displays an ability, he owns that ability, and even if he’s nothing else at all, Okonkwo has shown an ability to break off a big play. That has value. Is it enough to warrant a Mojo investment? Read on.

Mojo Spotlight: Chigoziem Okonkwo

Okonkwo, a fourth-round rookie, is a tight end, and that’s what he’s played so far in the NFL. But other than the position he plays on the field, everything about him screams receiver. In my pre-draft tight end rookie dynasty rankings, I compared him to ex-Jets receiver Quincy Enunwa. I had Okonkwo only 12th in the class, but it wasn’t a knock on his skills – I wrote “He has the receiving skills to succeed in the NFL” and noted that he had the fastest 40 time among all TEs at the combine – as much as it was a hedge against his rawness. He played only 29 games in college at Maryland, including missing all of the 2020 season after myocarditis, believed to be caused by a COVID-19 infection. As a senior in 2021, he caught 52 balls for 447 yards and 5 touchdowns, but that was more than twice as many receptions as he had in his college career to that point. In other words, the receiving ability was there, we just didn’t know if he’d be able to show it quickly, if at all.

Going Forward

The obvious roadblock for Okonkwo is his role behind Austin Hooper in a Titans offense that preferred to run first anyway. Well, that’s changing. In the Titans’ loss to the Eagles Sunday, Okonkwo ran 20 routes compares to 21 for Hooper. And now, with Derrick Henry struggling, with the Titans’ offensive line a shambles and with Treylon Burks in the concussion protocol, you could easily argue that Okonkwo is the team’s best receiving weapon heading into the home stretch of the season. (Min. 100 routes, he leads all tight ends in yards per route run … and not by a little.)