Over the next few months, we’ll be taking an in-depth look at some of the late season signings who are under contract for 2026, and futures signings after the end of the season. We continue today with edge defender Paschal Ekeji, who was added to the practice squad late last year and signed a futures deal after the season.
The 23-year old Ekeji is listed at 6’4″ and 230 pounds and is a former rugby player from Africa who is has no real football experience. He was a participant in the NFL’s International Pathway Program.
Background
Ekeji was born in Lesotho but is also a citizen of Nigeria and South Africa, where he has lived for most of his life.
He had a promising rugby career but became interested in the NFL after a friend introduced him to the Madden video games and attended the first ever NFL Africa Camp in 2024. Having impressed there, he was eventually given the opportunity to join the International Pathway Program.
After failing to land an NFL contract, he briefly went back to rugby last year, but attended a workout that the Jets were present at and they were impressed enough to pick him up for their practice squad in November.
At the end of the season, he was signed to a futures deal. He had only made four senior appearances without scoring in his professional rugby career.
Let’s move onto some more in-depth analysis of what Ekeji brings to the table as a player, based on extensive research and film study.
Of course we will need to speculate and take what we can from his rugby role and highlights to determine what he might bring to his new position.
Measurables/Athleticism
Ekeji was 210 pounds when he first attended the NFL Africa Camp but has bulked up considerably as he is now listed at 230. He also has good length and a muscular frame.
Among his impressive workout numbers are a 4.72 in the 40-yard dash, 33.5-inch vertical and 21 bench press reps. He also reportedly ran 10.9 for the 100 meters.
His speed and size were an obvious advantage for him during his amateur rugby career and his highlights regularly feature him running away from smaller defenders.
Usage
Ekeji was initially viewed as a potential wide receiver prospect, but he decided to convert to a defensive end position, figuring that better suited his athletic profile.
During his rugby career, he was a winger which is interesting because they are typically faster, but often smaller players, who line up close to the sideline to finish off scoring moves. They are also often weaker defensively, which is why they line up in a position that keeps them close to the sideline rather than in the middle of the field.
In Ekeji’s case, he obviously had speed but could also exploit any weaker defensive opponents on the outside with his power. Judging by his highlights, he would also often cut inside to the middle of the field to create attacking situations.
Motor
While it is an adjustment for rugby players to go from a game where the ball is typically in play for long stretches to one where there are short bursts of action for about 10 seconds at a time, rugby players would typically have excellent stamina.
With that said, being on the wing does often entail a lot of waiting out wide for the ball to come your way, so you could be standing around a lot and then getting those short sudden bursts of action in a similar vein.
Pass rushing
As impossible as it may seem to determine how good Ekeji might be at rushing the passer from his history in a game with no forward passes, we can still recognize things like closing speed and tackling ability in his play.
While roles vary, there are no exclusive offensive and defensive positions in rugby. If the other team has the ball, you’re all required to play defense and all that this entails.
Ekeji’s own insights into why he decided to try to become an edge defender are useful here. He noted that wingers are required to show agility, get past opposing players in tight areas and use their hands to keep their opponent off them. All of these traits could serve him well in terms of trying to beat offensive linemen.
Some of his rugby highlights show flashes of potential finishing abilities.
Run defense
Tackling and preventing a ball carrier from gaining ground would have been part of Ekeji’s defensive responsibility. Here’s a defensive play from a rugby game which looks like the kind of assignment you could see him being required to play in an NFL game too.
Where he’s going to struggle is in terms of dealing with blockers in one-on-one situations and handling double teams and chips. This is one thing that is typically alien to rugby players.
There’s a misconception that a rugby scrum could be similar to a blocking assignment in a football game but it’s really a completely different skill and wingers don’t get involved in scrums anyway, in much the same way as a wide receiver wouldn’t participate in a tush push.
Tackling
Tackling is one thing that is present in both games, although the techniques taught no doubt have their differences. For example, for strategic reasons in rugby, you might seek to prevent the ball carrier from going to ground in a position where he can feed the ball back to a teammate. However, in football, you would be seeking to limit yardage and get them on the ground as soon as possible.
One thing Ekeji seemed to have a knack for, although again this may just be a product of his size and strength, was ripping the ball away from ball carriers to gain possession for the defense.
Watching some of Ekeji’s tackling highlights, his technique seems a little sloppy and he is often too upright going into a tackle. This could be one thing the Jets will be seeking to clean up.
Footwork/Technique
There is no footage we can review to get an insight into how quickly Ekeji is developing his pass rush moves, but it’s notable that he is aware of how to use his hands to create separation from having done so when he was a ball carrier in rugby.
Ultimately, he should be a blank canvas for the coaching staff and there may even be some benefits to the fact he won’t have any bad habits that need to be broken.
At the NFL Africa Camp, when he was working as a wideout, it seemed like he had some natural ability that belied his lack of experience as he was described as smooth and looked good coming out of his breaks.
Coverage
Once again, there are no forward passes in rugby so it’s difficult to assess whether Ekeji would be able to handle coverage assignments. What we can say, though, is that he has displayed decent hands as a ball handler and also when going up to contest kicked balls.
His length could also be an asset when getting his hands up to potentially bat down passes.
Special teams
Special teams are an area where rugby players should be comfortable because kicking the ball downfield and chasing after it to limit the return is a common situation in both games.
Here’s one play where Ekeji makes a play that isn’t a million miles away from returning a punt.
Instincts/Intelligence
This might be an area of weakness for Ekeji because he is so inexperienced. However, he has studied the game in a lot of depth and was described by Maurice Jones-Drew who was coaching at the NFL Africa Camp as “coachable”.
Attitude
Ekeji is a man of faith with strong family values and has shown determination to be successful in his football career so far.
He clearly is a good teammate, who regularly showed unselfishness in terms of passing the ball to teammates so they could score rather than getting the glory for himself.
Injuries
Ekeji’s rugby career was disrupted by a knee ligament injury that also reportedly included a fracture kneecap. This sidelined him for almost a year in 2022 and 2023.
Scheme Fit
Having never played before at any level, Ekeji is obviously being groomed to fit the Jets’ existing system, although of course that system may change when they hire a new defensive coordinator anyway.
Conclusions
The analysis here obviously requires the caveat that there is a ton of projection and speculation based on his rugby highlights, most of which were at high school or college level where he typically had a huge size or speed mismatch over everyone on the field.
With that said, Ekeji is an impressive physical specimen and has obvious natural athleticism. Typically when a player in the International Pathway Program draws interest from a team it is because they have one elite trait which the team hopes they can build off.
With the Jets also having Lenny Krieg under contract, there are two candidates to take the roster and practice squad exemption that comes from being a Pathway player. They can’t both get this, so if they both make the team, one will need to be treated as a regular practice squad member rather than not counting towards the limit.
As with Krieg, Ekeji needs to show enough that the Jets thing he will make progress over the next 12 months to put himself into a position to potentially compete for a role.
