This doesn't have much to do with the 49ers at all anymore, but since there were a lot of you guys pulling for him during his time here, I think it's appropriate to post that Lawrence Okoye has been released from New York Jets.
If you remember, Okoye was a discus competitor with a bright future in junior rugby union. Well, after breaking the British discus record, and competing in the Olympics, Okoye came to America and signed up with the San Francisco 49ers with no football experience whatsoever. It was former 49ers head coach and then-defensive line coach Jim Tomsula's job to make this guy a football player.
Okoye showed lots of promise in the preseason (there were reports he flattened Jonathan Martin on the line) but a knee injury one year, as well as plateaued development as the seasons went by led to the hopeful being waived in 2015. This came after two years on the practice squad and only appearing in uniform during preseason games.
From there, Okoye bounced around the league playing with Arizona and the Jets along with rumblings he would be tried at offensive line. Looks like that experiment didn't work out.
Okoye should illustrate just how hard it is to break into the NFL. It's hard enough if you're someone who played the sport their entire life and even were a college star, but for someone with no experience relying on pure athletic ability, the difficulty just skyrockets. Jarryd Hayne may have broken that trend this year, but we'll never know because he left to go try out for the Olympics. The game was so difficult for Hayne he literally had to have cheat sheets hidden in his pants during practice just to know what to do.
Hopefully Okoye gets a new gig somewhere to continue learning, he's only 24 years old. Maybe he comes back to San Francisco for another shot?