The Notre Dame football program is always a big player during the 2022 NFL Draft, and here is how that affects recruiting.
The NFL Draft is quickly approaching. For the players, this represents the most important moment in their professional careers. It dictates what team a player will initially go and play for, and therefore who will coach and develop them at the next level.
Of course, for most players being drafted is the pinnacle of their careers, simply due to how hard it is to sustain an NFL career. Because of this, the NFL Draft rightly becomes a moment when we celebrate all these players and remember who they are as people and what they brought to the college programs that they played for.
Notre Dame football, traditionally, has several players drafted every single year. In the 2021 NFL Draft, Notre Dame football had nine players taken in the draft.
Out of all the teams in FBS football, no one has had more players taken in the NFL Draft than Notre Dame has, with 520 draft picks all-time. From Bill Shakespeare (taken third overall in the 1936 NFL Draft) to Ben Skowronek (taken 249th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft), the Irish have dominated the draft.
How the NFL Draft and recruiting are related for Notre Dame football
Notre Dame football has dominated the draft
Now, in 2022, Notre Dame is expected to have another top-10 pick in Kyle Hamilton. That’s before you consider all the other great players ready to be taken. It’s a moment that those players won’t forget, and you can fully expect Notre Dame to widely promote how many players they have taken in the NFL Draft and when they’re taken. There’s a key reason for this, and it’s more than just celebrating those players on Draft Day. It’s about promoting the program for the future too.
Success in the NFL Draft is one of the most important factors that land elite recruits to schools. That’s part of why certain elite teams can hoard talent, and why some teams can hoard talent at certain positions in particular. Why should an offensive lineman go to Notre Dame? Well, the coaching staff there has developed players like Ronnie Stanley, Quenton Nelson, and Liam Eichenberg, then you know that they can develop you into an NFL-ready player too. This is why teams like to brag about being ‘DBU’ or ‘Tight End U.’
When teams can prove that they can develop a lot of players at every position into viable draft picks, then it becomes easier to recruit elite talent to the team at every position, instead of just one or two groups. That’s because players with top-end talent, even if that’s a raw talent that needs to be developed, believe they have NFL potential. An elite player wants to play for a staff that they know can get them there, without potentially stunting their growth.
Marcus Freeman and the new Notre Dame coaching staff are investing a lot more in recruiting than Brian Kelly ever did. Kelly tended to let his assistants do most of the work in recruiting and let Notre Dame speak for itself. This meant only players interested in Notre Dame came. Freeman is more aggressive, making sure every recruit gets to understand both what he offers, as well as what Notre Dame offers.
How the NFL Draft and recruiting are related for Notre Dame football
New regime’s impact on recruiting
This aggressive approach has Notre Dame currently ranked second in the class recruiting rankings, according to On3. Now, there’s time for that to change, but it’s far better than anything Brian Kelly was able to do and it’s exciting.
If Notre Dame can maintain that type of recruiting, then they’re going to be able to put a more competitive team on the field with greater depth. This should, in turn, allow the Irish to more consistently compete on the field with the elite teams within college football.
This is one of the ways that college football and college football recruiting are cyclical. If you develop players into NFL players then you will have an easier time recruiting elite-level talent. With that elite-level talent, you should find it easier to develop even more NFL players. From there, you should be able to get even more elite-level talent, and so on.
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To get to that point, the NFL Draft remains incredibly important. Consistently having players drafted high and promoting those picks to recruits is going to impact Notre Dame’s ability to bring in players. So, when you watch the NFL Draft, remember to celebrate those players being drafted, but don’t forget that the future of the program is being impacted by this too.