Tag: Fighting Irish NFL

Notre Dame in the NFL: Highlights and photos of week 9’s action

It wasn’t a standout week 9 for former Irish stars, but there were still some impressive performances from this weeks NFL action. Check out below and see pictures and highlights of the best performances from former Notre Dame Football standouts. ND

It wasn’t a standout week 9 for former Irish stars, but there were still some impressive performances from this weeks NFL action. Check out below and see pictures and highlights of the best performances from former Notre Dame Football standouts. ND

Notre Dame in the NFL: Huge performances in big AFC game, Tate throws a pass and more

Plenty of former Notre Dame stars had big games for Pittsburgh (Claypool & Tuitt), Detroit (Okwara) and the Chargers (Tillery & Rochell).

Former Notre Dame stars had quite a week 8 in the NFL, highlighted by four former Irish alums making big plays in the huge AFC matchup between Pittsburgh and Baltimore. The Steelers left Baltimore undefeated, but that wasn’t due to the efforts from Miles Boykin. Find out which other former Notre Dame stars had big games this past week in the NFL.

ESPN’s McShay Updates ’21 NFL Draft Board, Irish Prospect Makes the List

There was one Notre Dame player listed as a top NFL draft prospect after he exploded on the scene last year.

The NFL Draft brought many fans a piece of sports back into their lives a little over a month ago and ESPN’s Todd McShay is already look ahead to the 2021 edition. He has released his NFL Draft rankings and the Irish were represented with fourth-year junior defensive end Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah checking in as the 17th best prospect (insider article).

McShay is enamored with Owusu-Koramoah as he “was an impact player for the Fighting Irish last season. I love everything about his tape. He is fast, he is instinctive and he is only getting stronger as he develops.”

Owusu-Koramoah blew up last year, totaling 80 tackles with 5.5 sacks, 13.5 tackles for loss, 2 forced fumbles and 2 recoveries along with 4 passes defended. After two years sitting behind Te’von Coney and Drue Tranquill and learning, Owusu-Koramoah honed his craft and just kept working. The time paid off making a big impact on defense and creating a hype train for the 2020 season.

Coming out of high school in Virginia Owusu-Koramoah was seen as an athlete which might be the reason he was just the 456th ranked player in the nation according to the 247Sports composite. He wasn’t highly recruited, the best two other offers Owusu-Koramoah had were Michigan State and Virginia. You have to give credit to defensive coordinator Clark Lea, as he identified the talent and developed Owusu-Koramoah into a potential first round draft pick. I expect a huge season from the talented linebacker and Owusu-Koramoah should be hearing his name called early in next years draft if he declares.

Notre Dame TE Kmet Drafted in Second Round By Hometown Bears

After an impressive junior year, Notre Dame’s Cole Kmet declared for the NFL Draft and his decision paid off being drafted in the 2nd round.

Although Notre Dame tight end Cole Kmet though he would be returning to South Bend for his senior year, that all changed when he saw the lack of elite tight end’s in this draft. Although no TE’s were selected on the drafts first night, Kmet was still chosen early in the second round by Chicago Bears, the 43rd overall pick.

The Illinois native didn’t blow up until last season when he caught 43 balls for 515 yards and got into the endzone six times. Kmet is seen as more of a receiver than a blocker, something that he will need to work on at the NFL level. Even with that flaw, Kmet knows he needs to be better in that area, put enough on film to impress Chicago to select him on the drafts second evening.

There were initial thoughts that Kmet could be chosen in the first round, but this draft has shown it’s fairly deep. It was one extra night that Kmet had to wait, and in the long run if he performs as well as the Bears thinks he can, it’ll be a small blip on his career.