Do the Ohio State Buckeyes have a rising star in cornerback Davison Igbinosun? As his 2025 NFL Draft scouting report details, Igbinosun has already impressed with his ability to get on the field, and his high-upside traits make him that much more compelling.
Davison Igbinosun’s Draft Profile and Measurements
- Height: 6’2″
- Weight: 193 pounds
- Position: Cornerback
- School: Ohio State
- Current Year: Junior
Igbinosun was a two-way standout at Union High School in New Jersey. He ran and caught the ball on the offensive side, but recruiters were most compelled by his potential as a cornerback. He was a four-star recruit and originally committed to Ole Miss.
Suiting up for Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin in 2022, Igbinosun climbed the depth chart quickly and started 10 of 13 games his true freshman season, logging 37 tackles and five pass breakups.
Igbinosun chose to leverage this strong season into a transfer opportunity, and the Buckeyes were eager to add his services.
In 2023, Igbinosun debuted for the Buckeyes as the boundary starter opposite Denzel Burke and slot CB Jordan Hancock, and he started all 13 games, accumulating 59 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, two fumble recoveries, and five more PBUs.
Now in his first season of NFL Draft eligibility, Igbinosun already has two full seasons for evaluators to review — and he’s very much on the radar.
Igbinosun’s Scouting Report
Strengths
- Lean, streamlined cover man with elite length and decent lean mass.
- Explosive long-strider who, once in phase, can erase and minimize separation.
- Easy accelerator whose long-strider speed can stymy and suffocate vertical threats.
- Has great lateral twitch and energy and can cover swaths of ground with lateral bursts.
- Can use his hyperactive lateral twitch to correct pursuit and tackling angles in support.
- Possesses enough fluidity to undergo 90-degree transitions ahead of vertical trails.
- Can use micro-movements to maintain hip leverage in off-man while half-pedaling.
- Corrective twitch and post-transition burst allows him to recover against double moves.
- Has shown he can match WRs off the line with disciplined technique, using feet first.
- Flashes patience in discipline in press-man, relying on his lateral agility to mirror WRs.
- Able to pedal in zone and off-man and use short shuffle steps to maintain hip leverage.
- Has the blind spot awareness to recognize in-breaker tendencies while aligned outside.
- Length grants him a wide disruption radius when making plays on the ball.
- Active support participant who uses length to establish half-man relationships on blocks.
- Can use his length to stack-and-shed boundary blocks and seeks to occlude run lanes.
Weaknesses
- Long speed, while very good, may fall below the elite tier.
- With taller frame, naturally lacks high-end hinge flexibility when climbing off releases.
- Visibly lacks elite hip sink and stopping ability when pressing vertical overtop hitches.
- Is susceptible to WRs who can enter his blind spot and exploit his lacking hip sink.
- With lacking hip flexibility, can get tied up in space by overlapping route concepts.
- At times, is easily tugged upright by releases and resorts to grabs to gain leverage.
- Plays tall in space as a zone defender and has extraneous footwork overtop breaks.
- At times, reaction speed and plant-and-drive footwork on route breaks can be quicker.
- Reaction to stimulus has room to improve and become more consistent on breaks.
- Sometimes struggles to tighten response and footwork overtop in-breaking routes.
- Is too often late to get his head around and track the ball when trailing receivers.
- Is inconsistent with his timing at the catch point, sometimes extending too late.
- Despite length, can improve at coordinating and playing the ball with more precision.
Current Draft Projection and Summary
Entering the 2025 NFL Draft cycle, Igbinosun grades out as an early-to-mid Day 3 prospect. He’s still young — just a true junior — so there is time for Igbinosun to keep improving, but there are also inbuilt limitations he’ll have to counteract with more refinement.
Igbinosun is easy to gravitate toward as a prospect. He was a highly-touted recruit who started 10 out of 13 games as a true freshman at Ole Miss in a secondary packed with potential NFL prospects. Then, Igbinosun started 13 games in a new scheme at Ohio State.
What stands out first on Igbinosun’s profile is how quickly he’s learned and acclimated at both spots — a trait that will no doubt serve him well later on. It’s also impossible not to mention his raw tools. At 6’2″, he has elite length, to go along with elite explosive capacity.
Igbinosun has shown he can play press-man, off-man, and zone coverage, and his hyperactive twitch yields great corrective mobility in those phases. He’s also an active and incredibly urgent and physical support defender, who is reliable in boundary pursuit.
For Igbinosun, there are two glaring areas of concern in coverage: Hip fluidity and sink, and playmaking. With his height, Igbinosun naturally plays tall, and his tall play style noticeably inhibits hip sink and response quickness on a variety of routes, and it can exacerbate issues with plant-and-drive footwork.
Meanwhile, in spite of his length, Igbinosun sometimes struggles with tracking and coordinating the football at the catch point. This corroborates his lack of ball production to this point. Even when he positions himself well, aberrations can occur.
Igbinosun can improve how he plays the ball, but the non-elite fluidity is a trickier issue. Igbinosun is far from a liability, but his sink limitations do impact his effectiveness against in-breakers, comebacks, and hitches at times and may induce scheme limitations down the road.
Nevertheless, as a man and zone-capable CB with elite explosive athleticism, length, and a physical, alert temperament, Igbinosun has appeal as a Day 3 developmental CB. And with more time to grow, early-round capital is not off the table.
