Will a Notre Dame player go in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft? Time will tell but if someone does it appears the best bets are either tight end Cole Kmet or edge rusher Julian Okwara.
Pro Football Focus released their latest mock draft on Monday and in it was a Notre Dame player not just in the first round, but in the top 20.
Austin Gayle of PFF had Julian Okwara going to the Las Vegas Raiders at 19 overall with the folllowing reasoning:
There’s currently not enough hype surrounding Okwara. The 6-foot-4, 250-pound Notre Dame product is a freakish athlete with absurd bend and flexibility that defensive line coaches salivate over at the next level. His technique will require improvement at the next level, but he still earned a 90.4 PFF pass-rushing grade before his 2019 season was cut short due to injury. His pass-rushing grade improved every year of his career with the Fighting Irish.
What is important to remember is how PFF chooses to do their mock drafts as its who the experts would pick there, not who they think teams are going to take. So I guess “mock” is used even more liberally here.
What is worth noting however is how sure they seem about Okwara even with him breaking his fibula against Duke and not playing in Notre Dame’s final four games of the 2019 season.