Lions DE Romeo Okwara’s amusing reaction to the NFL Combine mix-up

The official NFL Africa account misidentified Romeo Okwara as a 2024 NFL Draft prospect, and the Lions defensive end had a humorous answer.

Saturday was a busy day at the NFL Combine. Texas receiver Xavier Worthy established an all-time Combine record with a 4.21 40-yard sprint, while numerous quarterback prospects impressed with their arm strength in Indianapolis.

Strangely, Detroit Lions defensive end Romeo Okwara was unintentionally drawn into the affair due to a mixup of Twitter accounts.

Washington receiver Rome Odunze—one of the top prospects in the 2024 NFL Draft class—ran a 4.47 40-yard sprint, but when the official NFL Africa Twitter account congratulated Odunze on his great time, they erroneously tagged Okwara.

It’s an innocuous mistake. Both players are of Nigerian heritage, hence the attention from the NFL Africa account. Okwara was also a nice sport about it. In fact, he had an excellent response to the tweet:

Indeed, it would be ludicrous for Okwara, a 6-foot-4, 255-pound defensive lineman, to run 4.47. In case you’re wondering, Okwara ran a 4.9 in the 40-yard sprint in 2016.

In 2021, Okwara signed a three-year contract with the Lions worth $39 million. With those three seasons over, the veteran defensive lineman is slated to become an unrestricted free agency in little over a week (March 13), if he does not sign an agreement with the Lions before then.

Earlier this summer, Romeo’s brother, Julian, signed a one-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles.

For more information on the 2024 NFL Combine, see our Combine Results series, which has been running all week.