The Eagles found rookie defensive tackle Uar Bernard in Nigeria. Bernard believes that he’s far from the only player from his homeland that could make it in the NFL.
“[The league should] create that football awareness in Nigeria, have coaches there, have academies there,” Bernard said, via Colin Udoh of ESPN. “I believe that Nigeria have most of the talents in the world. If they have more opportunities they’ll do better than me.”
If Bernard develops into what the Eagles hope the 2026 seventh-round pick could be, Bernard may get his wish.
Without organized football in Nigeria, Bernard had to improvise. He relied on natural devices to learn the craft.
“[I was] using three trunks as bags to just practice pass rush, to be a blessing to my country,” Bernard said.
Many see parallels between Bernard and Eagles tackle Jordan Mailata, a 2018 seventh-rounder the team found in Australia. As Mailata sees it, that’s where the comparisons end.
“We should not draw comparisons to my story, and Uar’s story,” Mailata said recently, via Udoh. “This is two different positions, two different people. . . . My story has influenced people’s opinion of whether he will work out or not. I think it will work out, but only time will tell.”
Mailata’s confidence comes from the basic realities of the situation.
“Uar is a freak,” Mailata said. “He is also not of this planet. He’s just freakishly strong, freakishly fast, and I can’t even compare him to me, just because he’s just not of this world, by metrics and numbers wise.
“What I saw, my first day, they had a 315 on the bench, and he was repping 315 like it was 225, and I was like, where did they find this guy?”
If Bernard — who remains very raw — pans out, more people will be asking that question. And when they find out the answer, more teams may be taking Bernard’s advice and looking for more NFL talent in Nigeria.
And perhaps, in time, more of a football infrastructure will be introduced to a country that could become a pipeline for pro prospects.
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