10-Year Veteran Signs With The Jets

Defensive tackles don’t always light up the stat sheet, and the raw numbers don’t tell the full story with David Onyemata’s 2025. Starting and appearing in all 17 games, the longtime veteran finished the season with one sack, 62 tackles, seven tackles-for-loss, two quarterback hits, and a 78.2 PFF grade, the eighth-best mark out of 127 eligible interior defensive linemen. While he helped solidify one of the better defensive lines in football, it wasn’t enough to make the playoffs. Atlanta finished the season with an 8-9 record and lost out on the NFC South crown to tiebreakers.

David Onyemata originally entered the league as a fourth-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. Selected by the New Orleans Saints, the Manitoba product spent the majority of his first two seasons in a reserve role. However, he finally earned more playing time in 2018 and made the most of the opportunity. All in all, he recorded 4.5 sacks, 35 tackles, four tackles-for-loss, six quarterback hits, and a 79.7 PFF grade. With his help, New Orleans made it to the NFC Championship Game but lost to the Los Angeles Rams thanks to one of the worst missed calls in recent memory.

Onyemata continued his brand of good but not great football with the New Orleans Saints through the 2022 season. While he never made the Super Bowl, he helped New Orleans compete through the later years of the Drew Brees Era and appeared in at least 11 games in every season with the team. After seven years with the Saints, David Onyemata signed a new contract with the Atlanta Falcons. He recorded four sacks during his first year with the club.