It’s certainly true that in the NFL, draft status or lack of isn’t an indicator into career success. For Godwin Igwebuike, the trend of successful undrafted players is likely to continue.
A former 4 star recruit the Pickering, Ohio native was largely accepted to be a 3rd to 5th round pick; thankfully the Buccaneers got another bite at the cherry. Playing for Northwestern University, Igwebuike started to draw the attention of scouts and earned numerous accolades for his play at safety. Even in his own words “There were some other teams – a good amount of teams, honestly – that called” suggests that after the draft ended he was hot property. Why choose the Bay area? After all Tampa Bay had just drafted a safety and already has some young talent in the backfield.
When telling the media about why he chose the Buccaneers, Igwebuike said “I had scouts hitting me up, but to actually get on the phone with the G.M. here and to talk to him personally and hear his side of things, that really sent a message to me. It’s an opportunity to help the defense out, help the secondary out, I knew I could, and also just I could be a monster special teams player. Put all those things together for an opportunity to get on the field somewhere, at some point, sealed the deal for me.”
The personal touch seemed to have worked in this case and the Buccaneers hopefully have a special teams ace up their sleeve.
