Taking Best Available Athlete Could Net Bears CB Noah Igbinoghene
If the classic best available athlete approach meets with real need for the Chicago Bears in Round 2 of the NFL draft, the pick could be Auburn cornerback Noah Igbinoghene .
Although he's considered a bit of a project due to inexperience, the experience Igbinoghene does have from college is as good as it gets in the SEC against top athletes. It's just that it came both on offense and later at cornerback on defense.
"I'm very raw at this position," Igbinoghene admitted to reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine. "I've only been playing for two years and there's a lot of things I need to learn, but with that I feel like there's a lot of things I can learn, a lot of stuff I'm willing to learn as well, a lot of stuff they can teach me."
Igbinoghene has been playing football longer than two years, but before two years ago he was a wide receiver.
"Now I have to look at the game whole differently," Igbinoghene said. "Now I'm covering backwards, now I'm running backwards. Now everything is different. At wide receiver you're running forward and you have an advantage, I feel like."
In two seasons, Igbinoghene had an interception and 18 passes defensed to go with 65 tackles He'd already been established as a touchdown threat on returns and with his speed at wide receiver. He had two TD returns on special teams.
Receivers often switch to defense because of badhands. Igbinoghene said he never heard complaints about his hands, but his barber and pastor suggested to him to give defense a try, then an assistant at Auburn said the same. So he tried it.
"Moved from wide receiver to corner, started in six days—a lot of people couldn’t do that," Igbinoghene said. "So I really take pride in that. I’m really confident in that. I’m really confident in anything I do."
Genetics has something to do with why Igbinoghene could convert quickly and successfully, then run a 4.48-second 40-yard dash and do a 37-inch vertical leap while at the combine.
His mother, Faith, won the bronze medal in the 1992 Olympics at Barcelona while running on the 4 by 100-meter relay team for Nigeria. His father, Festus, also was an Olympic track and field athlete and competed in college in the U.S.
He credits them with providing both self-discipline as well as athletic ability.
"Growing up in a Nigerian house, I don't know if a lot of people know about that, but it was very strict," Igbinoghene said. "Didn't really get to do too much stuff, didn't really get to go out. Only got to focus on sports and school, so I used sports as my way to get out of the house, didn't really get to hang out with friends; "I'm not going to lie. At the time, I resented them. I'm not going to lie, I resented my parents, resented them keeping me in the house so much, but now looking back at it now, I'm able to separate myself so easily, I'm able to focus so easily because I was so focused back then. They kind of forced it upon me, so going to college it was so easy for me to separate myself so easily, to make that transition and do what I did because mentally I was so far ahead growing up."
Igbinoghene would meet a Bears need with Prince Amukamara gone and with remaining overall choices on the roster less than ideal. Undrafted free agent Kevin Toliver II, former Steelers cornerback Artie Burns and former CFL player Tre Roberson are the players Igbinoghene or any other cornerback candidate would compete with for the starting spot.
A cornerback with a receiver's hands would be an asset the Bears haven't enjoyed, particularly at right cornerback. Amukamara provided tight coverage but just three interceptions in three Bears seasons and 10 for his nine-year NFL career.
Igbinoghene would need to work on his hands in ways besides catching passes at the NFL level. He has to know how to use his hands better in coverage without getting called for holding or interference.
"Wide receiver is funny," Igbinoghene said. "I used to talk a lot of the times to the corners, and now I really see how hard corner is and how disciplined you have to be. You really have to be patient and detailed in whatever you do."
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