Tag: Alize Mack

Lions sign 2019 Saints draft pick Alize Mack

The Detroit Lions sign TE Alize Mack to a reserve/future contract, reuniting the 2019 New Orleans Saints draft pick with coach Dan Campbell.

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One former New Orleans Saints draft pick has been picked up by a new squad. Tight end Alize Mack signed a reserve/future contract with the Detroit Lions, the team announced Thursday. He’ll be reuniting with his former position coach Dan Campbell, now the first-year Lions head coach.

“I think the kid’s got a little bit of a chip on his shoulder in a good way,” Campbell said after the draft. “I think he probably felt like he should’ve gone higher. But I don’t feel like there’s somebody that came in that’s pouting or anything like that. I think he came in and had to go to work.”

A physical prototype at 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds with a 4.7-second time in the 40-yard dash, Mack was once the No. 1 tight end recruit in the nation before committing to Notre Dame. But he never really settled into a featured role in the Fighting Irish offense before entering the 2019 NFL draft. He was a last-minute pick by the Saints at No. 231 overall, and spent a few weeks on their practice squad before being waived early in the regular season.

Mack then bounced around a few different teams, logging time with the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers. Now he has an opportunity in a new city with one of the coaches that drafted him. Maybe things will go better this time around.

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Detroit Lions sign TE Alize Mack to a Reserve/Future contract

The Detroit Lions announced that they have signed tight end Alize Mack to a Reserve/Future contract.

The Detroit Lions announced that they have signed tight end Alize Mack to a Reserve/Future contract.

Mack was one of the top high school tight end recruits in the country and enrolled at Notre Dame for his college playing days. His career in South Bend started out on a positive note during his freshman year, but after an academic suspension as a sophomore, he struggled once he was eligible to return.

Even though Mack has plenty of NFL potential — size (6-4, 250), fluidity, ball skills, and inline blocking skills — he is still lacking refinement in his technical skills and that led to him sliding to the seventh round on draft day.

Mack was selected with pick No. 231 overall in the 2019 draft by the Saints and got his first NFL experience learning under Lions coach Dan Campbell who was his position coach in New Orleans.

“I think the kid’s got a little bit of a chip on his shoulder in a good way,” Campbell told Mike Triplett of ESPN. “I think he probably felt like he should’ve gone higher. But I don’t feel like there’s somebody that came in that’s pouting or anything like that. I think he came in and had to go to work.”

After being released on cut day following 2019 training camp, Mack signed to the Saints’ practice squad but only lasted three weeks. He then spent a week on the Pittsburgh Steelers practice squad before finishing out the season on the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad. He was not in the league during the 2020 season.

ESPN updates Position U’s, Find out where Notre Dame landed

The Irish place very well inside the updated rankings, but not quite where you would expect them to.

Now that NFL training camps have started back up, we are all getting a look at some teams roster constructions. With that, ESPN has updated their Position U rankings after gathering data from their Sports and Information group along with numbers from Pro Football Reference.

The Irish have placed in their rankings, although not in the top spot for any positions. Notre Dame placed 9th in Wide Receivers, 5th in Tight Ends and 7th in Offensive Line groups. It might seem like the analysts at ESPN got some of the rankings wrong, especially at tight end, but they do give some sound reasoning.

They did not mention much at ball regarding the production of former Irish wide receivers, but the group is very solid. Golden Tate, Will Fuller, Equanimeous St. Brown, Miles Boykin and Chase Claypool make up a fantastic collection of Notre Dame alumni receivers. Claypool has been shown very well so far and that ranking could be on the rise from 9th.

This next group, the tight ends, seems a bit low given the production from the group has been top-notch. The top spot went to Miami, the U, who boasts an quite a lot of quality players, as they have had 10 drafted in the last 20 years, with half of them going in the first round. They note that the Irish have “Cole Kmet was the first tight end taken in this years draft, and the Irish have had a tight end selected for three straight years.” Alize Mack and Durham Smythe were those two other players. As we know the position is stacked right now with tons of talent, but it’s hard to argue with Miami production the last 20 years. All time is a different conversation, however.

The offensive line helped the Irish get to 7th, but that ranking also could be on the move upwards as ESPN ranked them as who’s next. “There’s a strong case to be made that Notre Dame has produced the NFL best current tackle (Ronnie Stanley) and guard (Quenton Nelson) over the past five drafts. Add in Pro-Bowler Zach Martin, and NFL starters Nick Martin and Mike McGlinchey, and what the Irish might lack in quantity, they more than make up for in quality.”

The Irish didn’t make the defensive line group’s rankings but the did make their who’s missing. ESPN noted that “the Irish failed to produce a true impact player at the next level.” This is an area where an improvement is drastically needed.

As a whole collective group, the Irish did great inside the updated Positional U rankings. The upside is there for movement in the future and could very well be happening.

Notre Dame is Not named Tight End U?!?

A point system to establish Tight End U by 247Sports doesn’t have the Irish on top. Find out who was and where they placed Notre Dame.

Many of us have automatically assumed that every list that ranks collegiate tight ends always seems to have Notre Dame next to the number 1. Well, that wasn’t the case when 247Sports looked into the matter, in fact they named Iowa as Tight End U.

This is all based on what have you done for me lately, as Barton Simmons explains the timeframe is just for the last 5 years. A point system that awards a first round pick 7 points, a second rounder worth 6 and so on, saw the Irish finish with 11 points, good for a tie for 5th on their list.

With “just” 3 draftees in the last five years: Durham Smythe in the fourth round in 2018, Alize Mack in the seventh round last year, and Cole Kmet in the first round this past draft got the Irish to their somewhat disappointing ranking. The quantity is good however, as the Irish only trail Stanford with their four drafted players in the time span.

Simmons looks at this current unit and sees “some good tight ends left on the roster in Brock Wright and Tommy Tremble but true freshman Michael Mayer is the next guy that could sniff a first-round level career.” Although they weren’t named the best group in the last five years, the future looks bright when you also add in 2021 commit Cane Berrong to the lineage.

There is much debate when it comes to assembling these kinds of lists, arguments are surely to arise when trying to rank positional groups. The great news for the Irish is that these numbers should only improve within the next five years as the current and future group should continue the great tradition in South Bend.

Report: Chiefs to waive TE Alize Mack, RB Mike Weber

After making a pair of additions over the weekend, the Chiefs have made two moves to bring the roster back down to 90 players.

The Kansas City Chiefs made some new additions to the roster over the weekend, signing DE Taco Charlton and undrafted free agent QB Shea Patterson. With those signings come corresponding moves to make room on the 90-man offseason roster.

According to Chiefs Digest beat writer Matt Derrick, the Chiefs have waived TE Alize Mack and RB Mike Weber in order to make room for the incoming acquisitions. Both players previously signed reserve/future contracts with Kansas City this offseason. They both figured to be involved in their respective position battles during training camp for the Chiefs, but they’ll no longer have that opportunity.

Mack spent some time on the Chiefs’ practice squad in early November. He was a former seventh-round draft pick by the Saints, who didn’t make it through 53-man roster cuts n 2019. He was eventually released when Kansas City needed players at the DT position amid injuries. He eventually rejoined the team on the reserve/future deal, but that was clearly short-lived.

Weber was signed to the Chiefs’ practice squad in January. Weber was drafted in the seventh round of the 2019 NFL draft by the Dallas Cowboys. He didn’t make the 53-man roster and signed to the practice squad in Dallas, spending the majority of the 2019 season there. He figured to have an opportunity to compete, but with the running back room adding depth in DeAndre Washington and now first-round pick Clyde Edwards-Helaire, his chances of making the roster or even the practice squad were very slim.

While the new signings have been made official by the Chiefs, these corresponding transactions have not yet been made official. Both players have already been removed from the official roster, so expect the no recall waiver requests to appear on the transaction report today or later this week.

Watch: Notre Dame’s Top 10 Catches by Tight Ends

In the midst of the sports abyss we currently sit in the Notre Dame Athletics YouTube Page has been posting top-ten lists of various events over the years and counting down some of the best plays we’ve seen from Notre Dame athletes.

Their latest honors the great tight ends that have come through Notre Dame and the best plays they’ve made over time.  Without spoiling the list go ahead and watch it and then we’ll react.

Nobody does the tight end position better than Notre Dame.  Year in and year out you look at the NFL Draft and another Notre Dame tight end is getting their name called.  In a few short weeks Cole Kmet will become the latest on that list.

In the midst of the sports abyss we currently sit in the Notre Dame Athletics YouTube Page has been posting top-ten lists of various events over the years and counting down some of the best plays we’ve seen from Notre Dame athletes.

Their latest honors the great tight ends that have come through Notre Dame and the best plays they’ve made over time.  Without spoiling the list go ahead and watch it and then we’ll react.

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My immediate thought is without the impact of the play, the most impressive is Irv Smith’s at three.  What Smith did to those pour Hoosier souls sent football back three decades in Bloomington.

The two ahead of it obviously led directly to a national championship being won so even if they weren’t the most impressive plays like Smith’s was, I can’t argue for a second against either being ranked ahead of it.

The Rudolph play against Michigan in 2010 was one of the most-exciting I’ve been in attendance for, it’s just too bad nobody could tackle Denard Robinson that afternoon.

You could really put five through nine in any order and I don’t think anyone would be too upset.  The Rudolph game-winner at Purdue saved things from going south that season.  Well, for a few weeks, anyway.

If there was one that didn’t make the list that I always remember it’s the Jabari Holloway fumble recovery to take the lead against USC in 1999.  It didn’t save a memorable season by any means but it did help complete an epic comeback against Notre Dame’s biggest rival.

Then again, it wasn’t a catch.

49ers Super Bowl Berth Earns Pair of Notre Dame Products Trip to Big Game

Sheldon Day and Mike McGlinchey will be wearing the red, gold and white of the 49ers when they meet the Kansas City Chiefs on February 2 in Miami.

When the San Francisco 49ers finished their domination of the Green Bay Packers at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday, a pair of Notre Dame alumni earned their first trips to the Super Bowl.

Sheldon Day and Mike McGlinchey will be wearing the red, gold and white of the 49ers when they meet the Kansas City Chiefs on February 2 in Miami.

Day is in his fourth NFL season after spending a year and a half in Jacksonville before being waived in 2017 and picked up by the 49ers.

Day played in all 16 regular season games for San Francisco this season, making 15 tackles and recording one sack this year.

Day played on Notre Dame’s defensive line from 2012-15 and was a valuable rotational piece in the the 2012 year that finished with a 12-0 regular season. He had 32 tackles for loss in four seasons at Notre Dame.

Joining Day in Miami will be Mike McGlinchey who reaches the Super Bowl in just his second NFL season.

McGlinchey was a key part of why Notre Dame won the Joe Moore Award for the nation’s best offensive line in 2017 as he and Quenton Nelson of the Colts were both drafted in the first round the following spring.

McGlinchey was key in the 49ers dominating run game as the right tackle was part of the reason they ran for 285 yards and attempted just eight passes all day.

The 49ers will meet the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV as the Chiefs have no active former Notre Dame players on their roster but do feature former Irish tight end Alize Mack on their practice squad and former Notre Dame offensive lineman Andy Heck who has coached Kansas City’s offensive line since 2013.

Notre Dame Football: Tight End U Past, Present and Future – A Conversation

This conversation began moments after Cole Kmet declared for the NFL Draft.  It was entirely conducted through Twitter DM’s which may as well be the modern-day AOL Instant Messenger.

What a week to be a Notre Dame tight end, whether it be from past, present or future.

It began with Cole Kmet declaring for the 2020 NFL Draft after previously saying he’d be around for his senior season.  It’s impossible to fault the top-rated tight end in the class but still stings when you wanted to see him in blue and gold and as the ultimate weapon for Ian Book in 2020.

The week continued into the Saturday when Michael Mayer, part of Notre Dame’s latest recruiting class playing in the Adidas All-American Game.  Not only did he play but he provided one of the biggest highlights of the afternoon, going 37 yards on a touchdown reception.

Finally, perhaps one of the best to ever play tight end at Tight End U sent the Vikings to the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs as Kyle Rudolph pulled down a Kirk Cousins pass in overtime to send Minnesota to the second round and the Saints home.  We’ll leave the pass interference debate for a later date.

With that in mind, Nick Shepkowski and I had a conversation.  It includes a bunch of former tight ends at Notre Dame and discussion as to what the future of the position may hold.  I hope you enjoy a slightly different post than you’re probably used to at Fighting Irish Wire.

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