Jeff Otah

Jeffrey C. Otah (born June 17, 1986) is a Nigerian American former American football offensive tackle. He was drafted by the Carolina Panthers in the first round of the 2008 NFL Draft. He played college football at Pittsburgh.

Jeff Otah
Otah with the Carolina Panthers in 2009
No. 79
Position:Offensive tackle
Personal information
Born: (1986-06-17) June 17, 1986
Nigeria
Height:6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
Weight:330 lb (150 kg)
Career information
High school:William Penn
(New Castle, Delaware)
College:Pittsburgh
NFL Draft:2008 / Round: 1 / Pick: 19
Career history
Career highlights and awards
  • 2× First-team All-Seaboard (2004-2005)
  • Seaboard Conference MVP (2005)
  • First-team All-Big East (2007)
Career NFL statistics
Games played:29
Games started:29
Player stats at NFL.com

Early years

He moved to The Bronx at the age of seven, then moved to New Castle, Delaware at the age of thirteen.[1] He played high school football at William Penn High School in New Castle, Delaware.

Professional career

2008 NFL Draft

Coming in the 2008 NFL Draft Otah was considered by many scouts to be a top tackle prospect. The Carolina Panthers were reportedly very interested in him, evident by them sending head coach John Fox and General Manager Marty Hurney to his pro-day.[2]

Carolina Panthers

Reports of the Panthers being interested in Otah proved to be well founded after the team made a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles to trade up and to select him.[3] He was selected with the 19th pick in the first round. Jeff became an immediate starter at right tackle early in training camp. He started in 12 of the possible 16 games his first season missing 4 due to injury.

Otah started the 2010 season recovering from what was then thought to be relatively minor knee surgery performed in mid-August. But on 9 November, the Panthers placed Otah on injured reserve, ending his season without him ever taking the field.[4][5]

Otah's knee problems persisted into the 2011 season, and he was placed on injured reserve again on 19 October 2011, after missing two of six games.[6]

Otah was traded to the New York Jets for an undisclosed draft pick on July 23, 2012 contingent on his passing a physical for the team.[7] After failing the initial test, the Jets placed Otah on the PUP/Active list on July 25. He had seven days to pass the test again or the trade would be nullified.[8] On July 31, Otah failed his second physical thus voiding the trade and returning him to the Panthers.[9] Otah was released by the Panthers two days later.[10]

gollark: Fun idea: reminders to the past get scheduled at a random time and sent to a random channel on the guild they're from.
gollark: Ook ook. Ook! Ook ook ook.
gollark: OOP bad.
gollark: ++delete unpotatOS
gollark: You might as well say that `++remind` is functionally time delayed echo.

References
  1. "Jeff Otah Q&A". Panthers.com. Archived from the original on 2009-01-21. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  2. "Otah pleased with Pro Day performance | TribLIVE". Pittsburghlive.com. 2008-04-10. Archived from the original on 2009-04-01. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  3. "Carolina Panthers "trade up with Philadelphia Eagles, take Pittsburgh T Jeff Otah"". Realfootball365.com. 2008-04-26. Archived from the original on 2013-01-07. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  4. "Jeff Otah heads to injured reserve | ProFootballTalk". Profootballtalk.nbcsports.com. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  5. Nov. 9, 2010 - 5:15 PM ET (2010-11-09). "Panthers RT Otah (knee) done for the season - NFL- NBC Sports". Nbcsports.msnbc.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-10. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  7. Vrentas, Jenny (23 July 2012). "Jets trade for offensive tackle Jeff Otah". The Star-Ledger. Archived from the original on 25 July 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  8. Cimini, Rich (25 July 2012). "Jeff Otah trade now on hold". ESPN New York. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
  9. Vrentas, Jenny (31 July 2012). "Jets parting ways with injured Jeff Otah a week after trade". The Star-Ledger. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  10. Strickland, Bryan (2 August 2012). "Camp notes: Panthers release Otah". Carolina Panthers. Archived from the original on 4 August 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
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