Pro Football Focus is one of the many outlets that is plenty aware of how it helps to be young if you’re going to be great at football. They released their “top 25 players under 25” list on Wednesday and one Notre Dame player checked in second overall.
That player is Quenton Nelson of the Indianapolis Colts who will be 24 years, 5 months and 22 days old when the NFL season is scheduled to kickoff on September 10. Of Nelson they say:
Nelson was about as easy an NFL projection as you can get coming out of Notre Dame, and it’s no surprise that he has wasted no time in cementing his spot as one of the best guards in the NFL. He raised his grade from 79.4 as a rookie to 91.2 this past season, and his 88.8 grade over the last two seasons combined is higher than any other interior offensive lineman in the league over that span. To be as dominant as Nelson has been at his age is a rarity in the NFL.
Since leaving Notre Dame all Nelson has done in his two NFL seasons is twice be named a First Team All-Pro. His career puts him on a Hall of Fame trajectory early on, something that it would appear only an injury could slow down. The highest ever draft guard has proved worth being the sixth overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft by changing the culture of the locker room upon arrival.
So if Nelson is second, who could possibly be first?
Some guy named Patrick Mahomes that is fresh off a Super Bowl title and won the league MVP in 2018. When I was trying to guess the list myself I was wondering if Lamar Jackson was going to be number one and I didn’t even think of Mahomes because I’d forgotten how young he still is.
Christian McCaffrey, Derwin James and Jamal Adams rounded out the top five. I won’t ruin the rest of the 25 names but I will let you know that no other former Notre Dame players are on that list.