Rapid Grade for Bills Trading Up to Draft Cornerback Davison Igbinosun in Second Round

The Buffalo Bills continued to wheel and deal, making their fourth trade of the first two rounds of this year’s NFL Draft before selecting Ohio State cornerback Davison Igbinosun with the 62nd overall pick.

Buffalo sent pick Nos. 66 and 182 to the Denver Broncos to move up four slots, back into Round 2 and acquire the former Buckeyes defensive back, who will deliver added depth to a Bills cornerback room that entered the offseason with a desperate need to bring in adequate options at the position. After signing nickel cornerback Dee Alford to a free-agent deal, the Bills now have another intriguing prospect to help boost their secondary.

It’s the second straight season in which the Bills have used a top-100 pick on a cornerback after they selected Maxwell Hairston with the No. 30 overall pick in the 2025 draft. Buffalo also went on to pick CB Dorian Strong in the sixth round of last year’s selection process, making Igbinosun the fourth player at the position the Bills have drafted over the last three years.

The 22-year-old earned a Pro Football Focus coverage grade of 79.9 in 2025, which was ranked 95th among 897 graded players at the position. Igbinosun measures 6-foot-2 and 195 pounds and is renowned for his physicality. However, that part of his skill set has led to some past issues.

Undisciplined performance

Ohio State Buckeyes cornerback Davison Igbinosun catches a ball during Pro Day for NFL scouts at the Woody Hayes Athletics Center on March 25, 2026. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Bills’ new cornerback was flagged 30 times throughout his collegiate career, as he was docked in predraft evaluations for a tendency to be grabby on the outside. With that said, he displayed an improvement in that area in 2025, when he was called for eight fewer penalties than the previous season.

Igbinosun joins starters Christian Benford and Hairston near the top of the Bills’ depth chart, which also includes Alford and Strong, but not much beyond that. With Strong currently dealing with a serious injury, there’s a chance Buffalo’s rookie CB will serve as the team’s primary backup on the boundary this season.

When you consider it from that perspective, it seems like a smart move from the Bills to address a position of need. However, a move up the draft board for a player who won’t be a starter in his first professional season is questionable in and of itself. And when you consider Buffalo spent Day 1 of the draft trading three times to acquire additional draft capital, relinquishing some of that the very next day for a slight jump up the draft board to acquire a middling talent doesn’t make much sense.

There’s also the player’s value to consider, and I don’t believe the Bills got a great deal in how they acquired Igbinosun, not to mention the other players that were there for the taking.

Other options available

Texas defensive back Malik Muhammad (DB23) speaks to members of the media during the NFL Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. | Jacob Musselman-Imagn Images

If the Bills were to stick and pick at No. 66 or perhaps trade down further in the third round, they would have had other cornerback options available, including Texas’ Malik Muhammad, whom Buffalo met with during the predraft process and projected as a much more disciplined talent than the Igbinosun.

I previously wrote that Muhammad would have been a prime target for the Bills in Round 3, but Buffalo chose to go a different direction, and I believe they will regret it.

For a player with a track record of undisciplined play, Igbinosun hasn’t exhibited great ball skills during his career. He recorded just four interceptions at the college level, two apiece the last two years.

Igbinosun is the second Ohio State defensive back the Bills have drafted over the last two seasons, with Jordan Hancock selected in the fifth round of the 2025 draft. Hancock has yet to earn a contributing role, and it’s tough to imagine Igbinosun climbing the ladder to a starting job anytime soon.

Final grade: C

This pick was a head-scratcher for me. Igbinosun was not even on my radar.

After extensive research leading into the draft, the former Buckeye did not cross my desk as a player whom I believed would fit the Bills at all, much less after a trade-up into the second round.

The history of penalties is a clear concern. Buffalo previously traded up to draft a cornerback, Kaiir Elam, who also had trouble holding a bit too much in man-to-man coverage. Elam’s selection was one of the biggest busts of the Bills’ general manager/president of football operations’ career. Being a second-round pick, there’s no chance Igbinosun will ever be considered that level of misstep.

Still, I don’t like this pick and think it won’t take long to blow up in Buffalo’s face.

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