Miami Dolphins putting Noah Igbinoghene on Diggs was a mistake

The Miami Dolphins thought it would be a good idea to put Noah Igbinoghene on Stefon Diggs Sunday, it wasn’t.

On Sunday, the Miami Dolphins lost Byron Jones early to a groin injury and instead of moving Xavien Howard to cover Diggs, Noah Igbinoghene did.

There will be a time when Dolphins fans will talk about Igbinoghene like he is some super freak athlete who could someday get a mention for the HOF. That time is not now. Not anywhere close to now but what is interesting is why on Sunday the Dolphins third first-round pick was lined up against one of the best receivers in the league?

Igbinoghene was not good in his first full-time outing after the Jones injury. More often than not he was trailing Diggs around the field and it could have been worse as Josh Allen missed Diggs twice for big gains.

Diggs caught eight passes on Sunday for 153 yards and a touchdown and he should have had more. Igbinoghene simply couldn’t keep up and lacked the experience to go toe-to-toe with the veteran receiver.

Brian Flores didn’t really address the reason why Igbinoghene was on Diggs Sunday but it could have been due to how they practiced during the week. When asked about his coverage duties, Igbinoghene said that he knew he would be on Diggs but didn’t go into details about how much time he spent preparing for the possibility.

Igbinoghene called the game a “teaching moment” and indeed he got schooled on Sunday but so has a lot of other defensive backs. For the rookie, it will be a learning moment and one that he will need to make adjustments to and get better.