The Tennessee Titans selected Maryland tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo in the fourth round of the NFL draft Saturday afternoon. Okonkwo had a breakout senior season in 2021, finishing third on the team with 447 receiving yards and tying for the lead with five touchdowns.
Okonkwo was the draft’s 143rd overall pick — the last one in the fourth round — and became the second Maryland player chosen in the draft, joining safety Nick Cross, who was selected in the third round Friday by the Indianapolis Colts.
Okonkwo recorded only 69 receiving yards as a freshman in 2018, then 201 yards as a sophomore. He was poised to become the full-time starter in 2020, but he had to miss the season. Doctors diagnosed Okonkwo with myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle that can be caused by viral infections; it is believed to be a complication of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Okonkwo had to sit out for months without any physical activity.
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“I had those thoughts. I was like, ‘Dang, what if the last time I played football was the last time I could play football?’ ” Okonkwo said last year. “And those are kind of scary. But I knew I was going to come back.”
When he finally returned for 2021, he had his best season, positioning himself to become an NFL prospect. Okonkwo ran the 40-yard dash in 4.52 seconds at the NFL combine, the fastest among tight ends.
Okonkwo is the first Maryland tight end drafted since Dan Gronkowski in 2009 and the program’s highest-drafted tight end since Vernon Davis was a first-round pick in 2006.
“Chig is a fantastic player, a wonderful dude,” tight ends coach Mike Miller said this spring, adding that Okonkwo would babysit his young kids and come over for dinner. “He’s awesome — the epitome of what you want in our tight end room — so we’re going to miss him.”
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