Cardinals’ Ojulari describes the impact he can make in injury return
Arizona Cardinals linebacker BJ Ojulari played in his first game since January 2024 on Nov. 16, as he made his return from two knee surgeries.
One afternoon back in training camp, Garrett Williams was standing by his locker, talking shop about the Arizona Cardinals’ rookie class. At the time, Walter Nolen, their first-round defensive tackle, was at the beginning of a three-month rehab for his strained calf, far from returning to live action. But Williams remained fixated on the explosiveness he had seen out of Nolen back in mini-camp.
It was different, Williams explained, than most rookies. Heck, it was different than most veterans.
The way a football practice is set up, each position group is often sectioned into different parts of the field. A cornerback, like Williams, doesn’t get many looks at a defensive tackle. But Nolen didn’t need much time to make an impression.
Now, seven months after the Cardinals made him the 16th overall pick, the same has been true on Sundays.
In his first three starts, Nolen has generated a 9.6% pressure rate and made four tackles for loss. By Pro Football Focus’ pass rush win rate metric, he ranks eighth out of 144 defensive linemen with at least 50 snaps played. PFF has graded him as the best rookie at the position — against both the run and pass.
“Completeness in the run and the pass game,” as defensive coordinator Nick Rallis described it.
It’s a presence that this Cardinals defense desperately needed.
At edge rusher, Josh Sweat is having a career year, with nine sacks in 10 games. Baron Browning and Zaven Collins have both made their plays, too, with pressure rates above 12%.
But on the interior, it’s been Calais Campbell and not much else. Outside of Campbell and Nolen, Cardinals defensive linemen have a poor 3.9% pressure rate. And at age 39, Campbell has only played 48.6% of defensive snaps. Too often this season, Sweat has created pressure off the edge, only for a quarterback to be able to step up into an otherwise clean pocket and survey his options downfield.
With Nolen on the field, that’s not so easy. Sweat got the Cardinals’ lone sack in their Week 11 loss to the 49ers, but it all started with the rookie. Nolen used his strength to shove the left guard backward, then got low and ripped past him into the pocket. Quarterback Brock Purdy had to bail, and Sweat finished the job from there.
“The pocket is affected, whether it hits the stat sheet or not,” Rallis said. “He rushes with such high motor and just relentless to the quarterback.”
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Theo Mackie and Bob McManaman discuss the Arizona Cardinals’ 41-22 loss to the San Francisco 49ers at State Farm Stadium on Nov. 16, 2025.
On his only sack thus far — against the Cowboys in Week 9 — Nolen showcased his premier trait coming out of Ole Miss: his burst. With one explosive step and a strong hand swipe, he was into the backfield with ease.
But that will only go so far at the NFL level. A week later, against the Seahawks, Nolen had a pass rush snap on which he exploded past left guard Grey Zabel. In college, it would almost certainly have been enough to get home to the quarterback. But Zabel had the foot speed to recover, and Nolen was washed out of the play.
It’s why, after the draft, Jonathan Gannon challenged Nolen to focus on improving how he uses his hands.
“He likes to come off the rock and rip up the field, which is awesome, one of the things that we love about him,” Gannon said then. “And I think when you pair that (with when) he does flash his hands at times, there’s not a lot of people that can stay engaged with him. He can throw those guys off.”
Against the 49ers, Nolen did exactly that, showcasing more variety in his pass rush.
On one pressure, he started with a power rush, using his hands to move his blocker backward before transitioning into a swim move. On another, he won off the edge with speed — a rare ability for an interior defensive lineman.
“Really just staying true to my pass rush,” Nolen said. “Every rep, you’re not gonna win. If you’re winning every pass rush rep, you’re a different breed. But just staying consistent throughout the game and going to different moves.”
That was a product of Nolen’s increased comfort with the pace of the NFL. In his third game, he felt that speed slowing down.
“When you first get out there, it’s kinda, I wouldn’t say difficult, but the bullets are flying a little faster,” Nolen said. “It’s not like practice where you’ve got time to correct your mistakes.”
Meanwhile, in the run game, Nolen has shown all the traits that made him PFF’s second-highest-graded run defender in college football last season. His explosiveness enables him to shed blocks and disrupt rushing lanes, while his strength means he can anchor against double teams and avoid being washed out of plays.
And when he does lose, his “motor,” as Gannon describes it, enables him to make plays anyway. On one pass rush, he lost with Plan A and Plan B, but chased Purdy as he bailed from a clean pocket. That pursuit nearly forced an interception.
It’s the same trait that Gannon saw on Nolen’s college tape, which helped quiet the concerns about his commitment to football that surfaced in pre-draft rumors.
“The guy plays with extreme motor,” Gannon said at the time. “Which, that tells me, he loves football. … That was the first thing that jumped off the tape.”
Put it all together, and it’s a package that looks different than most players in their first three NFL games.
And that, for the Cardinals, is a welcome change. A year and a half later, Monti Ossenfort’s 2024 draft class is still discussed with caveats. They’re still young. They’re still inexperienced. They’re still improving.
That, of course, is not an unprecedented path to stardom. Marvin Harrison Jr. and Darius Robinson and Max Melton may yet turn into Pro Bowlers.
It’s a lot nicer, though, when a rookie announces himself as a difference-maker right away. But if you ask Nolen whether he’s pleased with his own performances, you’ll get a more mixed assessment.
“Yes and no,” Nolen said. “I feel like I should have a couple more sacks and be involved with the defense a little bit more.”
Given what he’s already put on tape, that’s a warning shot to the rest of the league.
