Dolphins cornerback Noah Igbinoghene wants to live up to first-round status
MIAMI GARDENS — Noah Igbinoghene was called into action in less-than-deal circumstances last Sunday.
The Dolphins’ first-round pick in 2020 watched defensive backs Nik Needham and Keion Crossen go down with injuries in the first half of the loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Suddenly, he was playing opposite of Xavien Howard in the No. 2 corner role.
What resulted was perhaps Igbinoghene’s best game in a Dolphins uniform, stepping up when the team needed him most.
“It’s what I train for, it’s what I work so hard for,” Igbinoghene said following Thursday’s practice.
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Igbinoghene played 60% of Miami’s defensive snaps against the Vikings, his highest share of the season and the most since Week 6 of last season. He hasn’t gotten too many opportunities through the early part of 2022, and he was a healthy scratch in two games.
That’s why Igbinoghene knew this was an opportunity not only to get meaningful snaps, but also gain his coaches' and teammates' trust to execute in high-leverage situations moving forward. And with a single-game career-high two pass break ups, against Adam Thielen no less, Igbinoghene showed the type of physicality needed to compete with receivers of that caliber.
“A lot of receivers don’t like physical corners,” Igbinoghene said. “They don’t like people who get in their face and touch them a lot. And so that’s what [our coaches] teach us. That’s all I did. … So, I really put an emphasis on the coaches. They really got us ready and got me ready for that opportunity. And I was able to just show them.”
Sam Madison, the Dolphins defensive backs coach and former All-Pro corner with Miami, has been working with Igbinoghene – who has struggled to live up to his billing as a first-rounder since entering the league in 2020 – on the tiny details of the position.
Sam Madison working with Igbinoghene
Some of the key things the two have focused on are body control, staying on receivers’ hips and his pressing in man-to-man coverage. They are skills that Madison was happy to see play out throughout Igbinoghene’s cameo.
“He’s one of those guys that is going to go out there and give it his all,” Madison said. “He’s still learning the position and I’m trying to give him all the little tools so that he can go out and be in a position to be able to make plays.”
After a pass interference call on one of his first snaps, Igbinoghene settled down and got comfortable in his role and began to execute, and as he did so, his teammates’ confidence in him grew as well. While on the sideline, Madison was coaching up his young corner when defensive tackle Raekwon Davis put an end to the lesson.
“Throughout the course of the game I was talking to him and then Raekwon [Davis] saw me talking to him and was like ‘Coach, leave him alone. He knows what he’s doing,’ ” Madison said. “So, I just let him go and handle his business.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Noah Igbinoghene shows promise with Miami Dolphins secondary ailing
