Notre Dame Football NFL Draft Fits: Alohi Gilman and the Eagles

The playmaking safety helped the Notre Dame football program win 23 games over the last two seasons. Now, it’s time for him to make an impact on Sundays.

Alohi Gilman has been a huge part of the success of the Notre Dame football program over the last three years — two on the field and one in the locker room and practice.

For starters, he’s a high-quality human being. You need to be exactly that to earn an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. You don’t achieve that without being highly intelligent, as well as a natural leader and model follower.

Those traits all showed up during his time in South Bend after transferring from Navy. His presence in practices and in the locker room during his red shirt transfer season set the bar for both behavior and effort for his peers. His bottom line production once he got on the field helped the Notre Dame defense be elite.

While playing for the Irish, Gilman logged 168 tackles, defended seven passes, forced five fumbles and grabbed three interceptions.

It’s that sort of production and physical, aggressive play that is going to land him a spot in the NFL. In my opinion, the perfect home for Gilman is with the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Eagles faced serious depth issues in their secondary this season, and it impacted their eventual playoff standing. Additionally, they are in a division with a couple of the most complete running backs in the NFL. They need an athletic strong safety who can cover those guys in obvious passing situations, as well as come up and make plays in the run game.

Gilman is built to do both of those things well at the next level.

As far as a comparison to a current NFL player, Gilman’s style of play most closely resembles that of Patrick Chung. The New England safety played in Philly for a season, and his physical play helped give both the Eagles and Patriots an identity on defense.

Hopefully Philadelphia pulls the trigger on Gilman at some point in the draft. He has all of the traits necessary to be a fan favorite in a place where impressing and staying on the good sign of sports fans is a tall order.