Moro Ojomo contrite about training camp skirmish with Eagles teammate Fred Johnson: ‘You fight with your brothers’
After training camp tensions flared last week, Ojomo says he's ready to test the Eagles' mettle against the defending AFC champs.
Moro Ojomo admitted that his fracas with Fred Johnson in the final moments of last Thursday’s practice was not his finest moment.
Tensions between the two had been festering during team drills. They eventually quarreled on back-to-back snaps, with Ojomo lunging at Johnson’s lower half not long after their teammates attempted to separate them following the second play.
Football is an aggressive sport, Ojomo said. But he expressed an understanding that he crossed the line.
“Emotions, and you fight with your brothers,” Ojomo said Monday. “It was just over football. Got a little heated. It was wrong. It’s not a standard that we set out here, and it was a mistake, and I messed up.”
After three weeks of practicing against his teammates in training camp, Ojomo is ready to direct his aggression at someone else.
Enter the New England Patriots.
The Eagles will head to Foxborough, Mass., for a pair of joint practices against the defending AFC champions on Wednesday and Thursday ahead of Saturday’s preseason game. For Ojomo, the joint practices are welcome opportunities to compete against another team in a controlled environment, especially for the starters who are unlikely to play in the preseason.
“We’ve been hitting each other so much,” Ojomo said. “We want to kind of create that camaraderie and go versus someone, and ultimately we want to get the train rolling. We’re trying to have a great season, and you start it off with a great joint practice with [the Patriots].”
Foxborough is familiar territory for the Eagles. The Patriots hosted them for a single joint practice ahead of the 2024 season. On that day, the Eagles defense — in its first summer under Vic Fangio — dominated the Drake Maye-led offense that went on to rank 30th in the NFL in scoring that year.
» READ MORE: Eagles 53-man roster projection 3.0: What changed after the first preseason game?
This week’s practices should be a little more evenly matched for Ojomo and his defensive teammates. Maye, who finished second in the MVP voting last season behind Matthew Stafford, is now headed into his third season and his second under head coach Mike Vrabel. The Patriots have invested in Maye’s supporting cast, from the offensive linemen that protect him to the receivers — including former Eagle A.J. Brown — that catch his passes.
Brown won’t be the only former Eagle in attendance. Milton Williams, the 2021 third-rounder out of Louisiana Tech, signed a four-year, $104 million contract with the Patriots in the offseason that followed the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory.
Ojomo had a theory regarding why Williams got paid by the Patriots that year.
“He had a great, great practice up there,” Ojomo recalled of their joint practice.
Ojomo acknowledged that the Eagles have a history of defensive tackles, including Williams in 2025 and Javon Hargrave in 2023, playing their way into paydays with other teams.
He could follow the blueprint that Williams and others set forth. Ojomo, the Eagles’ seventh-rounder out of Texas, is in the final year of his rookie deal. If Ojomo builds upon a breakout 2025 season in which he registered six sacks, he could be in line for a hefty raise with the Eagles or elsewhere.
Ojomo said earlier this month that watching Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter sign extensions to stay in Philadelphia this offseason is serving as motivation in Year 4.
But he is driven by Williams’ trajectory, too, which ultimately landed him with a different team.
» READ MORE: The Eagles offense was not impressive in Sean Mannion’s debut. That’s not surprising ... or all that concerning.
“I think everyone’s encouraged by that,” Ojomo said. “Everyone’s encouraged by seeing when someone [balls] out and ultimately gets to that second contract, which is kind of that big, abstract goal for players as a rookie.”
That abstract goal will become more tangible for Ojomo once the season gets underway. But first, after weeks of going head-to-head with his own teammates, he’s eager to compete in joint practices with an outside opponent.
“At the end of the day, that’s a Super Bowl team from last year,” Ojomo said. “You’re not going to get much better competition than that, right? So, we’re very excited, and we’re going to try to give them our best shot. And I feel like, likewise, from their part.”
Lane Johnson rejoined training camp this past week after a multi-day absence, but his return brought with it the announcement that 2026 is “probably” going to be his last NFL season. What does the prospect of the All-Pro’s retirement mean in both the short- and long-term? The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and Ryan Novozinsky take a look at what the Eagles can expect from Johnson in his 14th year as a pro, and who might be waiting in the wings to replace him. Listen here.
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