FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- After four weeks on the bench and a slow implementation to the team's defensive line rotation, Ruke Orhorhoro neared the halfway point of his rookie season giving the Atlanta Falcons the flashes they hoped to see from their second-round pick.
During the first month of their rookie year, Orhorhoro and fourth-round pick Brandon Dorlus told each other when they were finally promoted from inactive to active on gamedays, they'd stay there. Orhorhoro had done it.
Suddenly, it all crashed. A left ankle injury in a Week 8 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers cost Orhorhoro five games -- and meant he was back in the place he thought he'd left behind: Sitting on the bench, wearing street clothes and watching the rest of his teammates fly around.
"It was definitely hard, man," Orhorhoro told Atlanta Falcons on SI during minicamp. "As a competitor, you want to play every single snap in a game. But it's the nature of the beast. Sometimes things like that happen. It's about how you respond to it -- not what happened, but how you respond to it."
Orhorhoro capitalized on the time away. He watched and heard the game from a different perspective. He also healed more than just an ankle injury, refreshing other parts of his body that accumulated bumps and bruises over the three-month stretch from training camp to his fateful day in Tampa Bay.
While far from ideal to be robbed of on-field snaps, Orhorhoro said it was "somewhat helpful" to get a mid-rookie-season reprieve. He returned to a heavier dose of playing time in his four-game sprint to the end of the season, as he was on the field for 85 defensive snaps the final month as opposed to 63 in his first stint.
The Lagos, Nigeria, native finished his rookie campaign with 11 tackles, one tackle for loss, four run stops and five total pressures, according to Pro Football Focus.
He also gained a wealth of lessons that only time and experience can offer.
"I had all the intangibles, the athleticism, but there's a lot more knowledge that you have to learn when you're taking the next step to the pros," Orhorhoro said. "There's guys (who have) been doing it for 10 years-plus. So, you don't think they have a lot of knowledge? You got to go compete with that.
"So, I'll say my knowledge of the game and the scheme (have grown the most), and just familiarity with the organization."
Orhorhoro believes he has a better understanding of what blocks are coming based on down and distance and knowing what runs or pass outs could head his way depending on the formation.
The theme of the 23-year-old's first professional season was learning. He leaned heavily on 10-year veteran defensive tackle Grady Jarrett, who said during joint practices against the Miami Dolphins last August that Orhorhoro is his "little brother."
Jarrett and Orhorhoro knew each other before the latter arrived in Atlanta in the summer of 2024. Jarrett is a Clemson University alumnus, and he'd occasionally return to campus to watch the Tigers' practices. Orhorhoro spent 2019-23 at Clemson, twice earning third-team All-ACC honors while playing in 53 games.
Orhorhoro said he soaked up as much knowledge as possible from Jarrett, who signed with the Chicago Bears this spring after the Falcons released him in a cap-saving move.
Jarrett aside, Orhorhoro grew close to Dorlus. They were forced to endure the same difficult introduction to life in the NFL, as both were healthy scratches for the first month. Dorlus didn't debut until a Week 11 loss to the Denver Broncos.
Those growing pains strengthened their bond. They often hypothesized about what they would do once their opportunity came. Both received abbreviated chances in 2024. They're poised for more in 2025.
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Before Nate Ollie joined the Falcons as their defensive line coach in January, he already knew of Orhorhoro.
Ollie, who was the Houston Texans' assistant defensive line coach in 2024, watched Orhorhoro during the pre-draft process, and the Clemson standout was high on Houston's draft board. Orhorhoro said he didn't speak to Ollie much before the draft -- perhaps a chat at the NFL combine, he said -- but Ollie said he "really liked" Orhorhoro's college film.
Now getting the chance to work hands-on with Orhorhoro, Ollie likes what he's seen thus far -- though pads won't come on until training camp starts in late July.
"Ruke, this guy is really athletic, and this is a guy we talk about that can win in the B gap," Ollie told Atlanta Falcons on SI before OTAs. "We're doing our drill we call 'corner' -- you see how he can point the knee and toe, and he can accelerate.
"He's picking up the stance and the scheme that we're trying to do right now at a high level, and excited to see what he can do this year."
Orhorhoro is similarly fond of his new position coach.
"Oh man, he's a high energy guy," Orhorhoro said about Ollie. "He's going to demand it out of you, and he's consistent. You know, some coaches say they're high energy, and they might have their days, but I haven't seen one day where he's not yelling and screaming everywhere."
Atlanta doesn't just hope, but expects, Orhorhoro to make the patented Year 2 leap. Falcons head coach Raheem Morris said at April's league meetings that players often make their biggest jumps in their second year, and he believes Orhorhoro and the rest of the team's 2024 draft class can prove the validity of his theory.
It's about finding a routine and getting into a rhythm, Morris said. Some players flourish immediately, while others take more time. But after Year 1, no matter their success, each player faces the same adjustment process -- and Morris said there's either a drop-off or substantial growth.
"In order to help that growth process, it is about establishing that rhythm and routine that you can put together for yourself when you become that adult," Morris said. "That rookie season, it's pretty easy to have a routine when everybody's telling you what to do every second of the day up until 7 p.m. until you're absolutely exhausted and you want to get something to eat and go to bed, right? That's easy.
"That second year, when things start to happen, and you're done at 1-2 p.m. during the day, and now you've got to make grown man decisions on maintenance to the body, 'What are we going to do extra on my own? How much studying am I going to do by myself? How can I get those things done?' So, I think a major part of that is guys really figuring out a routine before they get there."
Morris said the Falcons won't fully know if Orhorhoro and company have taken the next step until training camp, when the physicality element returns to the team's practice field in Flowery Branch.
"I think they have absolutely attacked this part of it," Morris said, "and that is establishing body armor, establishing they can run all day, establishing ownership of this part of the defense we've put in thus far."
The Falcons anticipated this. Apart from releasing Jarrett and re-signing rotational pieces in Ta'Quon Graham and Kentavius Street, Atlanta didn't do much to change its interior defensive line this offseason. The moves -- or lack thereof -- signaled confidence in Orhorhoro and, to some extent, Dorlus taking bigger steps.
Orhorhoro spent extensive time with the Falcons' first-team defensive line during OTAs, and he appears poised to take over the starting job next to veteran David Onyemata.
For Orhorhoro, the next chapter in his development comes in putting all the pieces together. He picked up football relatively late in his life and has survived, if not impressed, primarily due to physical tools while maturing in the mental aspect.
Now, after perhaps the biggest learning year of his football career, the time has come for Orhorhoro to blend talent with tangible tools -- and he's ready to embrace the challenge.
"Some may class me as a raw player, and I understand that. I haven't been playing football that long in my life," Orhorhoro said. "But I feel like every year I take big strides. I'm starting to catch up to all the cats that started playing when they were 6 years old. Me, I started playing when I was 16.
"I feel like now, slowly, it's just all going to come together."