Opportunity opens for Noah Igbinoghene in Miami

The Miami Dolphins won’t have their highly paid cornerback tandem on the field when they kick off their 2022 season against the New England Patriots on Sept. 11.

The lineup will include three-time Pro Bowler Xavien Howard, but Byron Jones is not ready to play after offseason ankle surgery. The Dolphins placed him on reserve/physically unable to perform last week, which sidelined Jones for at least the first four games of the season.

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Miami’s options include next-man-up at Jones’ spot or shifting Nik Needham from slot corner. Either way, the Dolphins are going to have to dip into their depth chart.

The cornerback candidates include:

· Keion Crossen has played with three teams and made four starts in his four NFL seasons. Last season, Crossen was on the field for 23 defensive snaps and 309 special-teams plays.

· Noah Igbinoghene is a former Hewitt-Trussville High School and Auburn standout who joined Miami as the 30th choice in the 2020 NFL Draft. After playing in every game and taking 287 defensive snaps as a rookie, Igbinoghene played 78 snaps in seven games in 2021.

· Kader Kohou made the Dolphins’ regular-season roster as an undrafted rookie from NCAA Division II Texas A&M-Commerce.

Which cornerback will play with Jones out?

Miami coach Mike McDaniel said they all might.

“When competition is so close and fierce and you have quality young players, it’s twofold,” McDaniel said on Thursday. “I don’t think it benefits anybody to just bestow or crown because you have to earn that, and that’s through games. They haven’t even been able to play a full game yet, as well as it gives us versatility for matchups.

“I talked to those guys, and this is the case for a lot of the team: When you have a good amount of quality players — and I think those guys are quality. I know the names don’t get you guys juiced up, but when you watch their play, they get quality play out on the field — that gives you a little versatility to adjust to an opponent, so maybe you see something in particular that a player struggles with that this person excels at, so maybe this player plays a little bit more this game and then that rep count adjusts — not because of poor quality of play, but because of that matchup. Much like basketball in the playoffs, certain people all of a sudden play more. And then there’s certain games that they don’t. That’s a commonality, and I think that’s what we’re kind of afforded with having a nice little lump of quality young talent.”

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Igbinoghene has stepped in for Jones previously. In 2020, Jones played only four snaps in the second game and missed the third and fourth games with groin and Achilles injuries. In those three games, Igbinoghene played 51 percent of his 365 career defensive snaps.

In his second NFL game, Igbinoghene got matched against Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who took a step toward earning first-team All-Pro recognition for the 2020 season with a 153-yard performance. Igbinoghene’s rookie roller coaster also saw him take the blame for a coverage bust on a key play in a 31-23 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Game 4 after going all the way in the Miami secondary and breaking up a pass in a 31-13 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars in Game 3.

Almost two years later, first-year Dolphins cornerbacks coach Sam Madison said during training camp that Igbinoghene, who came to Auburn as a wide receiver, must play with the confidence of a cornerback.

“Things are going to happen,” Madison said. “This is the National Football League. You’re going to play the best of the best. You’re going to see some good quarterbacks. You’re going to see some good wide receivers. You’re going to give up some plays. But try to minimize those plays that you’re giving up and try to create as many good plays for yourself versus bad. …

“I’m very happy with Noah and the things that he’s doing. He’s still learning. You go back, when I first got here, I go through a lot of the different tapes and try to see the things that he’s had an opportunity to see. There’s a lot of things that he hasn’t been able to see, so throwing a lot of different things at him.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.