Duke Ihenacho Disputes Chris Cooley's Theory He Was Salty Over Josh Norman Getting His Number

Washington’s defense was in disarray this season, which led to the ouster of coordinator Joe Barry and some of his staffers. There was hope coming into the season that the secondary would be bolstered by the high priced acquisition of Josh Norman, but that was not the case.

Former Washington tight end and current ESPN 980 talking head Chris Cooley had a theory about the chaos. As transcribed by DC Sports Bog’s Dan Steinberg:

Ihenacho, in a string of tweets, disputed this notion:

"Alright y’all, I wasn’t going to give this Cooley story attention, but it seems to be gaining steam and people are actually believing it. Anyway, it’s completely inaccurate. I know Cooley has a job to do as a Skins radio guy and part of that involves speculation…and finding reasoning for whatever is going on.. But no there was no issue over a jersey number. Especially 8 weeks into to the season (as what was reported)…lol that’s crazy. We took care of that back in April before OTAs, and I haven’t thought about that number since. In Cooley’s defense though, he did say it’s not fact, and he has no real source…it’s just what he believes. He’s entitled to that."

Ihenacho continued:

"What was a lil disappointing, was his comment about my unwillingness to act professional…when that’s all I’ve ever been my whole career. And if you ask most coaches or teammates or workers within the organization, I think they’ll agree."

From the total outside of this situation, who the hell knows, but Ihenacho’s denial seems pretty compelling from afar.