2:15 p.m. ET
Brady Henderson ESPN
RENTON, Wash. — The Seattle Seahawks addressed one of their biggest needs with one of the most interesting names in the NFL draft, taking former Cincinnati cornerback Coby Bryant with their fourth-round pick on Saturday.
And yes, the newest member of the Seattle high school is named after the NBA legend. So is there any pressure to be named after one of the greatest basketball players of all time?
“Not really a pressure,” Bryant said on a conference call with Seattle-area reporters, “more of a privilege, to be honest. It just means I have to work twice as hard to live up to that name and make a name for myself too and most importantly I represent it as best I can.”
Bryant explained that his parents were huge Kobe Bryant fans from afar growing up in Ohio. They gave their son’s name a different spelling so that it had some individuality.
“My parents loved Kobe Bryant and everything he brought to the table, not just as an athlete but as a person himself and how he carried himself,” Bryant said. “So this is someone they ultimately knew right away that they wanted to call me by that name.”
The Seahawks needed to strengthen the cornerback position but didn’t stand a chance of picking up one of the draft’s top two options, Derek Stingley Jr. and Ahmad Gardner, both of whom had left when Seattle made its 9th-seat first pick. Instead, they landed Gardner’s college teammates with the 109th overall.
They had a formal meeting with Bryant at the Scouting Combine and a Zoom call a few weeks later where they had him watch a movie with Karl Scott, their new defensive passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach.
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“I knew I was good after the interview,” Bryant said. “Go ahead and lo and behold, I got the call.”
Along with an interesting name, Bryant brings a ton of production and experience to the Seattle high school. He won the Jim Thorpe Award for the nation’s top defenseman last season while playing against Gardner, who finished fourth to the New York Jets after the Houston Texans made a pick to Stingley earlier. The 23-year-old Bryant recorded nine interceptions and 35 pass defenses in his four seasons as a college starter.
Bryant described himself as an intelligent, physical cornerback who makes a lot of plays on the ball.
“I would say my ball skills are the best in the draft,” he said.
As for his basketball skills?
“I’d say I’m more of a dunker,” Bryant said. “I think really good. I can shoot a little bit because I’m left-handed…but other than that I really can’t do too much.”
Bryant’s Cincinnati teammates sometimes called him “Red Mamba,” in a play on Kobe Bryant’s nickname Black Mamba, or Bean, the basketball player’s middle name. He started at No. 7 last season but switched to No. 8 for the Cotton Bowl because he wanted to honor his namesake.
“I was grateful to this coach [Luke] Fickell understood that and allowed me to wear No. 8,” he said.
Bryant joins a cornerback group that also includes Sidney Jones (re-signed), Tre Brown (returned from knee surgery) and Artie Burns (added in free agency). Seattle lost DJ Reed in free agency.