When the Baltimore Ravens' CJ Okoye sacked QB Stetson Bennett in his first ever game of football - a 2023 NFL preseason game for the Los Angeles Chargers - he could have been forgiven that life in the league would be a breeze.
However, the next two years would show the defensive lineman that the gulf between where he was and his dreams was still vast - but also that he had the mettle to continue the climb.
Eventually, he became the first African International Player Pathway (IPP) Program graduate to play an NFL regular season game, but the two seasons before that were far from an easy ride to the top.
After two years at the Chargers, where he failed to progress higher than the practice squad, Okoye finally made his NFL regular season debut for the Baltimore Ravens on September 28 in a 30-17 defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Two weeks later, he was signed to the active roster, and he now has three regular season appearances to his name.
"I feel like I've still got more to do; I've still got more growing to do - but I'm learning right now and I'm picking it up. I feel like I've still got more to give and I just want to win," Okoye told ESPN.
All three of his games so far have ended in defeat for the Ravens. The team is accustomed to better days, so a difficult start to the season may have been a shock. Okoye, however, is no stranger to having to prove himself against the odds.
He credited his struggles in his second year at the Chargers in 2024 for his remarkable start to 2025: "My second season [at the Chargers was the first turning point]. My first season was great, because it was my first city [in the NFL] - a new city, new football, new everything.
"Nobody even knew me, so people didn't know what I was bringing. Now, after my first season, I already put enough on tape for people to be like: 'OK. This is how he plays.' Now, they defend you the way you play and you need to bring it on or else you get kicked out, so you need to hone your techniques.
"My second season didn't go great for me. Don't get me wrong - I played my a** off, I trained my a** off, I know - but it didn't go that great for me. That's when I got the wake-up call."
The Nigerian, who only started playing American football in 2021, continued: "I knew nobody was coming to save me. Nobody is coming to save us, so it's basically you against the world. It's you against you - do you want it or not? I [didn't] want to be in the practice squad my whole life.
"I'm thankful I'm in the league, but I don't want people to know me as that practice squad guy - playing in the NFL for 10 years and nine of those years, you're in the practice squad. I don't want to be that guy."
It was not Okoye's first wake up call, since the NFL Africa Touchdown camp in Ghana led by Osi Umenyiora, where his talent was unearthed in 2022. Okoye had only been selected for the NFL's first camp in Africa by the skin of his teeth though Umenyiora's Uprise program.
Umenyiora told ESPN at the time: "He didn't test particularly well in the drills [at The Uprise]. The problem is -- because they have never done those drills before and it's a different kind of training to execute them properly -- when you test them, the numbers won't be that impressive.
"But then you put him in a competitive situation and he stands out. So, after watching him in competition, I decided he was well worth a chance."
Umenyiora's faith in Okoye paid off with his standout showing at the NFL Africa camp and progression to the IPP Program via a combine in London. However, the youngster had to essentially start from scratch after being converted to defensive end after his offensive MVP showing at the camp that earned him his IPP spot.
Self-professedly at his best with his back to the wall, Okoye rose to the challenge and progressed through the IPP Program to the LA Chargers.
"I know that I was a prospect, but coming to the camp in Florida, America, was hard," Okoye told ESPN in 2023.
"I thought I was the best but seeing the best people in each country come together, I was like, the last. I had to work my way to the top, so I was the underdog.
"When we were done with the combine in London, I started working - I started going to the gym because I knew that what I saw there [in myself] wasn't enough [to be in the NFL]. So, I started going to the gym, I started lifting weights. I started doing some stuff because I want to work and I want to be the best, but it wasn't enough."
When Okoye speaks about his family back home in Nigeria, it is not difficult to deduce where the motivation to succeed comes from and why he is "grateful but not complacent" after having achieved many of his dreams.
Born in Agbogugu in Enugu State, Okoye split his childhood between his mother's house there and his father's in Benue State. His parents stayed married, but lived separately.
He explained: "The sh*t at home - I know where I came from; it wasn't the best. I didn't go to Ivy League school; you know how it is. My dad worked two or three jobs... I didn't have the best life growing up, but I still want to give my siblings and my parents the best life that I can - and my kids too when I have them."
Initially, Okoye thought his path to success would come through basketball. He played for Kwara Falcons, but by the time they made their debut in the Basketball Africa League (BAL), he had moved on to pastures new after being converted to American football by Umenyiora and Uprise partner Ejike Ugboaja - moving in to live with the former Cleveland Cavaliers draft pick in Abuja.
Even though he had the endorsement of people in high places, Okoye knew he would be playing catch-up at the Chargers.
"Coming into this league, I know I didn't have any tapes. If I was the offensive or defensive coach, I wouldn't give me a chance because I didn't have tape, so what's going to speak for you is the way you conduct yourself at practice - the little things - so I went after that," he admitted.
After his miracle sack for the Chargers against the Rams, Okoye no longer felt like the underdog at first - a problem for a player who performs best when he feels he is.
"I would say yes and no. I would say yeah," Okoye said when asked if the sack made him feel that life in the NFL was easier than it really turned out to be.
"When you get that, people start telling you all this noise. They start telling you you're good and then you start believing them. That's a trap. It's like: 'You were made for this,' and before you know it, sh*t can go downhill real fast.
"I feel like now, I'm smarter than that because I tell myself what I need to do every day. I tell myself [the adulation] is nothing. It's just the next game, the next step, the next thing [on the agenda that's in focus]."
For now, Okoye's main goals are picking up as many wins as possible and experiencing the playoffs and the Super Bowl as a fully fledged member of the Ravens team.