The Miami Dolphins seemed set to have one of the best cornerback tandems in the NFL this season with Xavien Howard and Jalen Ramsey. Howard had been a Pro Bowler in four of the past five seasons, and Ramsey had earned the honor for six years in a row.

But after joining Miami in a March trade, Ramsey sustained a meniscus injury in training camp that might keep him sidelined until December.

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If Kader Kohou stays at slot corner, the Dolphins’ top candidates to replace Ramsey included rookie Cam Smith and former Auburn standout Noah Igbinoghene.

“It doesn’t make you go back to the drawing board and tweak the system at all,” said Vic Fangio, Miami’s new defensive coordinator, about Ramsey’s injury. “I mean, you might have to use parts of it a little bit more than you had planned to, or you just have to always compensate. If you have a versatile system, you don’t have to go back to the drawing board. We’ve got to find players to step up and play good in his absence and go from there. …

“I think both of them are making good progress. They’re not where we need them to be just yet, but I think both of them are working hard and giving us good progress, and, hopefully, by Game 1, one of them or somebody else will surface and take that position.”

“Somebody else” turned out to be Eli Apple, a free agent with 78 NFL regular-season starts signed by the Dolphins on July 29.

Igbinoghene has been in this situation previously during his three seasons with the Dolphins. In the final year of his contract, will this be the situation in which Igbinoghene seizes the opportunity?

“Don’t underestimate the journey that is going from system to system in a defense,” Miami coach Mike McDaniel said of Igbinoghene’s work in Fangio’s defensive scheme. “Specifically, you guys all know that we played a ton of man coverage, and now we play a ton of really everything, so that process and being able to identify eligibles – this defense does require a good understanding of what everyone is doing to be great. He’s continued to progress and make more plays.

“He had one of my favorite cloud reps that he’s had all camp and really since he’s been here. He got his hands on a turnover. These are things that you like to see, and you like to watch what players do with it. How does that confidence materialize moving forward? Is he thirsty enough to say, ‘I want more,’ or do you get comfortable? That’s why I like the preseason, I like the players’ journey and I like to watch them develop, trying to really fulfill their dreams.”

During the Dolphins’ scrimmage on Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium, Igbinoghene picked off quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

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“It was good, man,” Igbinoghene said. “I was just running down the sideline, saw the ball in the air and went up and got it. …

“I was just playing my responsibility, and when you do that and when you focus on your technique, balls start coming your way, and that’s what happened. The ball was in the air, I went up and got it. I work on everything in indy with (cornerbacks coach) Sam Madison and our DB coaches. It just worked out for me today.”

Coming to Auburn from Hewitt-Trussville High School as a wide receiver, Igbinoghene made the switch to the secondary during spring practice in 2018 after one college season as a pass-catcher.

After Igbinoghene’s two seasons in the Tigers’ secondary, Miami made him the 30th choice in the 2020 NFL Draft.

In Igbinoghene’s rookie season, cornerback Byron Jones went down four snaps into the second game, and he missed the third and fourth games.

In his second NFL game, Igbinoghene got matched against Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who took a step toward earning first-team All-Pro recognition for the 2020 season with a 153-yard performance. Igbinoghene’s rookie roller coaster also saw him take the blame for a coverage bust on a key play in a 31-23 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Game 4 after going all the way in the Miami secondary and breaking up a pass in a 31-13 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars in Game 3.

Jones returned in Game 5, and Igbinoghene played 64 defensive snaps in the remaining 12 games.

In 2021, Igbinoghene played all 66 defensive snaps as an injury replacement in Game 6, and 12 in the remaining 16 contests.

Last season, Igbinoghene played 238 defensive snaps, with 75 coming as an injury-replacement starter in a 16-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Oct. 23. Igbinoghene sealed the victory by making the only interception of his career in the end zone on the Steeler’s final snap.

But Igbinoghene was designated as a game-day inactive for six of Miami’s final eight games last season.

“Noah’s been working extremely hard,” Madison said last week. “He’s been working well every single day. We’ve put him in different situations, just mixing and matching a lot of different people because you never know what could happen in a practice and a preseason game and even going on through the season.

“He’s always one of those guys that’s always going to be in shape. He’s always going to be prepared. He’s always going to be ready. Now he just has to go out and take that next step of becoming who Noah wants to become. We have all the expectations high for him, and now he’s got to go out there and set the expectations for himself and go out there and compete.”

As a former first-round pick who has started five games in three seasons, Igbinoghene has heard plenty of criticism. But he said he’s focused on working with his coaches and teammates in training camp to improve.

“I’ve been handling it very well,” Igbinoghene said. “You just have to take coaching to get better. That’s the only way to get better. You have to take constructive criticism. I’ve been really accepting with it and not taking nothing personal, and just really making sure this is just a business and accepting my teammates and my coaches — anything they tell me, all my criticism and stuff like that. Again, I have to take that with a grain of salt and just get better each and every single day.”

The Dolphins kick off their three-game preseason schedule against the Atlanta Falcons at 6 p.m. CDT Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.