Orchard Park, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - As the saying goes, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
For cornerback Davison Igbinosun, one of the Buffalo Bills' two second-round choices in this year’s NFL Draft, the past month has been his first chance to make an impression on his new NFL defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard.
Speaking to the media prior to the team’s voluntary OTAs session Tuesday, Leonhard was asked what has stood out so far about the player they call "IGB".
“No. 1, competitiveness. He's extremely competitive in everything he does,” Leonhard said. “And then growth. I saw a player early in his [college] career that, I thought, had to make some adjustments in order to really maximize his potential, and really saw him do that this last year.”
Igbinosun was called for 12 penalties in 2024 at Ohio State University, but reduced those way down to four in 2025.
When he was selected with the 62nd overall selection, Bills general manager Brandon Beane felt he improved on the penalties dramatically in 2025.
"We’ll work on that. Sometimes that’s technique," Beane said back in April. "That’s one of the things I’d say he improved the most from his 2024 film to his 2025 film. [He’s] very aware, football-smart young man, football savvy. Probably off-coverage is something he’ll have to continue to improve on. ... I think more of those [penalties] were in that than when he’s up in press.”
Leonhard liked that Igbinosun took that issue seriously and worked to improve upon it.
“You see young players that are willing to make adjustments and grow, and you always want to bring in that culture of competitiveness,” he said.
Not only did the 6-foot-2, 198-pound Igbinosun show a willingness to improve and go out and do it, Leonhard says he also has physical traits they needed at the cornerback position.
“'IGB' is a guy that we saw as an ascending player that gave us a little something different," he added. "The size, the length that he has is a little bit different than what we had in the room, and we just felt like that was the right person to get in the room with that pick. Excited that it went that way.”
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