Cowboys Trade: Noah Igbinoghene ‘Controversial’ Scouting Report

Ex first-rounder Noah Igbinoghene has been traded to the Cowboys in exchange for Kelvin Joseph. What, exactly, is Dallas getting? Our scouting report on the former Auburn football and track star ...

FRISCO - Kelvin Joseph is heading to the Miami Dolphins as the Dallas Cowboys, in a sense, are admitting the spending of a 2021 second-round pick on the cornerback (who also wanted to be a rapper and who also found himself involved in a Dallas murder case) didn't quite work out.

Meanwhile, Noah Igbinoghene didn't quite work out for Miami, either, and he's what Dallas gets in the Tuesday trade. What, exactly, is Dallas getting? Via our guys at AllDolphins at SI, a scouting report on the former Auburn football and track star ...

Igbinoghene, 23, was the third of the Dolphins’ three first-round picks in the 2020 NFL Draft and easily the most controversial at the time. Selected 30th overall after the Dolphins moved down from 26th, Igbinoghene was viewed as an athletic but raw prospect who might need some time to develop.

Unfortunately, the first part proved prophetic ... while the jury is still out on the second issue. While Igbinoghene looked better this training camp than maybe at any time during his time with the Dolphins, he still continued to lack the instincts cornerbacks need to succeed at the NFL level.

noah igbinoghene had literally one great moment with the dolphins. the game sealing pick against the steelers was such a strange time. pic.twitter.com/stBxFceevX

— stone (@apollostoney) August 29, 2023

While he does have some size (at 5-11) and good athletic ability (his parents were both Olympic track stars in Nigeria), Igbinoghene lacks ball skills, along with instincts, and really struggled in man-to-man coverage. He did better in zone coverage, which is what new Miami defensive coordinator Vic Fangio favors, and was in a battle to land the outside cornerback job opposite Xavien Howard (during Jalen Ramsey’s absence) until he was outplayed by veteran Eli Apple.

Igbinoghene got off to a bad start in Miami when he was thrown into action in one of the first games of the 2020 season against Buffalo and was asked to cover Stefon Diggs ... and it almost seemed like he never recovered from that.

As we have suggested about Kelvin Joseph, Maybe what Noah Igbinoghene needed was a change of scenery to finally reach his potential. And now both highly-drafted cornerbacks get exactly that chance.