Rising Bills rookie turning heads in 2026 OTAs

The Buffalo Bills had a lot of holes to fill in the 2026 NFL Draft. However, they seemed to go with a depth pick instead of a potential starter with their second second-round pick. Ohio State cornerback Davison Igbinosun was a controversial selection, but now the CB is turning heads in Bills OTAs, and he may also be quickly moving up the depth chart.

There were several reasons why Igbinosun—known as IGB in the Bills’ locker room—seemed like a head-scratching pick. First, the Bills already had a solid cornerback room heading into the 2026 draft. Christian Benford is the unquestioned CB1, Maxwell Hairston was the 2025 first-round selection, and Dee Alford was one of the biggest free agency signings of the offseason. Additionally, free agent acquisition Chauncey Gardner-Johnson can play slot corner, and Dorian Strong is another promising young corner, although he is recovering from neck surgery.

Adding CB depth was not the questionable piece of the pick, though. Doing it with the Bils’ second overall pick in this year’s draft and trading back up into Round 2 to do so was the issue. With more significant needs at wide receiver, defensive line, and linebacker, the Igbinosun pick was a surprise.

The other puzzling piece of this selection was the player himself. Igbinosun has rare physical gifts. He is over 6-fo0t-2, weighs 182 pounds, and runs a 4.45 40-yard dash with a 34-inch vertical. You can’t teach that type of size and athleticism. That said, his college tape did not justify using a pick that high in the draft.

Over the course of 13 games at Ole Miss and 43 at Ohio State, Igbinosun had just 27 passes defended and four interceptions. Even more problematically, though, he had a whopping 30 penalties. All that led to this writer and others comparing IGB more to draft bust Kaiir Elam than a CB like Benford.

Despite all this, he is now on the Bills’ roster, and after an eye-catching OTAs run, he may be moving up the depth chart.

Davison Igbinosun has been a standout at Bills OTAs

A 6-foot-2, 180-pound CB is going to stand out on a football field no matter what, for better or worse. And while there was some worse in Igbinosun’s first NFL OTAs, there was a decent amount of better as well.

Early in OTAs, Igbinosun made some big plays, including intercepting Josh Allen while covering D.J. Moore and returning the pick for a touchdown. Allen reportedly responded by burning IGB for a touchdown, but the flashes were there.

While plays like that get fans’ attention on social media, it’s what the coaches are saying about Davison Igbinosun that really makes you sit up and take notice of the CB’s potential to play a big role this season.

“He’s played at a high level, and he’s going to make mistakes right now,” Brady said, per WIBV4 in Buffalo. “But you can tell he’s not backing down from some of the opportunities and the competition. I’m excited about where he’s been so far.”

“The size, the length that he has is a little bit different than what we had in the room,” new defensive coordinator Jin Leonhard added. “We felt like he was the right person to get in the room with that pick, and we’re excited it went that way.”

Whether it is due to his play on the field in the Bills’ minicamp, OTAs, and the training camp to come, or the checkered injury history of Benford, Hairston, and Strong, it is quickly becoming clear that Igbinosun will get on the field during the 2026 season.

The burning question now is, can Igbinosun be the high-end CB that his measurables and flashes suggest, or is he the grabby, underproducing Elam 2.0 that some have predicted?

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