Five Fast Facts: Esezi Otomewo’s role in the Steelers’ defensive line picture

The Steelers’ offseason work includes continuing to build depth on the defensive interior, and their latest spotlight feature focuses on defensive tackle Esezi Otomewo. In a “Five Fast Facts” profile released by the team, Pittsburgh ties Otomewo’s immediate value to his snap-to-snap ability and to what he has shown over the last year as a rotation piece on the inside. The team also notes that Otomewo signed a one-year contract this offseason, after first joining the Steelers during the 2025 offseason.

On the field last season, Otomewo appeared in 12 games and recorded nine tackles, with five coming as solo stops. The Steelers’ summary also credits him with one sack and one tackle for loss. Those production points matter because defensive tackle contributions often show up as either disrupting plays early in their development or improving the defense’s odds of keeping runs between the tackles contained.

Looking beyond one season, the profile frames Otomewo’s experience as a steady developmental arc. In his four seasons in the NFL, he has appeared in 21 games, including two starts. The team’s account says those games have produced 18 total tackles, eight solo stops, two tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks. That combination suggests a player who can be used in multiple run and pass situations, even if he is not always the first option at nose tackle or the base interior starter.

Otomewo entered the league as a draft pick, selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL Draft with the 165th overall pick. His rookie season in Minnesota saw him appear in five games and record five tackles, three solo stops. The Vikings later published a similar “things to know” breakdown that also emphasized his draft position and early-career background, reinforcing the same timeline of how his NFL career started.

After Minnesota, Otomewo spent two seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars (2023-24). According to the Steelers’ profile, he appeared in four games in 2024, starting two, while compiling four tackles, two quarterback hits, and half a sack. For a defensive tackle, those quarterback-related stat lines are often tied to interior pressure and leveraging gaps, which is typically a skill coaches ask for when building down-to-down consistency on the defensive front.

In college, Otomewo played at Minnesota across 46 games and totaled 81 tackles, including 50 solo stops. The profile adds that he registered 13.5 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks, along with a forced fumble and a fumble recovery, and it notes he earned All-Big Ten honorable mention recognition in 2021. Together, those college numbers help explain why teams view him as capable of bringing pass-rush juice from the interior, not only as a space-gaining run defender.

With Otomewo under contract for another year, the question for the Steelers is how frequently he can convert his role into higher-impact production during games that matter most in the standings. His profile points to a player who has already logged meaningful snaps, so the next look should be at how Pittsburgh uses him across the full defensive package, particularly in third-down run-pass mixes and early-down gap assignments where interior disruption can change the flow of an entire series.