Uar Bernard Never Played Football. The Eagles Just Made Him the First African Drafted From the IPP
International Player Pathway athlete Uar Bernard celebrates after being chosen by the Philadelphia Eagles with the 251st overall pick during the final day of the NFL football draft in Pittsburgh, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Doug Benc)
Nobody knew his name three weeks ago. Not even Bruce Feldman, the guy who literally invented the Freak List, not most NFL scouts sitting in their draft war rooms, and certainly not the average fan scrolling through boards trying to decide if watching Day 3 of the NFL Draft was that important.
Uar Bernard, 21 years old, from a small village outside Abuja, Nigeria, wasn’t even a thought in the football world. Then Saturday night happened, and he walked out draped in the Nigerian flag, put on an Eagles hat, held up an Eagles helmet at the podium, becoming the first African player in International Player Pathway Program history to ever hear his name called in the NFL Draft.
His story starts on a basketball court, where a coach watched a 16-year-old move and immediately knew he was in the wrong sport. Bernard, who had been planning a career in real estate, listened. He worked out at camps in Nigeria and Cairo for over three years. He studied pass-rush technique on YouTube, using tree trunks as training equipment. The NFL’s International Player Pathway Program brought him to Fort Myers, Florida, on January 18 of this year, and four months later, he’s an NFL Draft pick. Four months. He hasn’t played a single snap of organized football in his life.
Then he showed up to the IPP Pro Day and made sure nobody forgot his name. 6-foot-4, 306 pounds, 6% body fat, a 4.63 forty, a 39-inch vertical, a broad jump of 10 feet, 10 inches that wasn’t just the best among defensive tackles at this year’s Combine, it was the best ever recorded for any player over 300 pounds in HBCU Combine history. His Relative Athletic Score came back 9.90 out of 10, ranking him 23rd among 2,278 defensive tackles tracked since 1987.
NFL Combine trainer Jordan Luallen, a man who has seen everything, put his clipboard down and told The Athletic exactly what he saw:
“Hands down, he is the most explosive athlete I’ve ever seen in my life. He broad jumped 10-10, and it was effortless. At 306 pounds. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The Eagles weren’t going to let that walk out of the building. Philadelphia traded back with the Rams late in the draft, stacking seventh-round picks, viewing late selections exactly the way you should — as lottery tickets. Defensive line coach Clint Hurtt, one of the best position developers in the game, is now the man tasked with turning raw Nigerian athleticism into a problem for NFL offensive linemen. The Eagles have done this exact thing before, and it worked out rather well.
“We wanted to take the chance on the kid,” Howie Roseman said after the pick. “Obviously, we’ve had great success with that program. Coach Hurtt went down there and spent the day with him, worked him out. It was pretty cool.”
The last time the Eagles took a chance and trusted the player development program, they ended up with Jordan Mailata, drafted in the seventh round in 2018 out of the same International Player Pathway Program. He became Pro Football Focus’s best football player in the world in 2024 and one of the highest-paid left tackles in the NFL. The blueprint exists, the patience is there, and this organization that built it exists. The bond between these players, who were both branded as “longshots” out of the draft, had already been established before his name was even called.
“[Mailata] came through the camp when we were in the 10th week in Fort Myers,” Bernard said after being selected in his media availability. “The first day I met him, he told me that I should use my talent to bless my family. So I believed what he told me, coming through the IPP, coming through, coming to the NFL as an IPP player, he’s more like a role model to me, what he’s doing now in the NFL.”
Bernard will sit behind Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter, and Moro Ojomo in year one, learning from an elite defensive line room while the IPP roster exemption buys him time to grow. The Eagles aren’t asking him to be ready tomorrow.
Knowing where this man started his journey makes everything that comes from now on hit differently. A man who taught himself how to rush the passer from YouTube videos, who trained with tree trunks in Nigeria, who four months ago was still learning what a three-technique even was, is now a member of the Philadelphia Eagles. Call him a project, call him a long shot if you want, but don’t just call him a long shot and walk away, just don’t scratch that lottery ticket just yet.
“It’s a dream come true for me because I’ve worked hard for this,” Bernard said. “I’ve not played football, but I’ve gone through some drills that made me believe that I’m going to get better every day. I thank God for the opportunities given to me to be drafted by the Eagles.”
Steve Hamilton
Steve may have been born in California, but don’t let that fool you. After dating a local woman and clashing with her and her family over sports for decades, he has an affinity for Philly sports. Balancing love for Philly and Bay Area sports teams may seem impossible, we can all agree that the Cowboys are the true evil.
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