Ranking every Notre Dame football first-round draft pick of the last 25 years
Notre Dame football has by and large been a one-stop shop for NFL franchises looking to fortify their offensive trenches over the past 25 years.
With that said, though, there have been notable picks at nearly every position coming from South Bend and making a mark on pro football as well.
Over the past 25 years, the Fighting Irish have produced a full spectrum of draft busts to perennial Pro Bowlers headlining the NFL’s annual late April/early May mass hiring — with some players peaking in Notre Dame gold helmets and others ascending from South Bend to become great at the next level.
Let’s rank every Notre Dame football first-round draft pick of the last 25 years
22. player. 53. . QB. Cleveland Browns. Brady Quinn
No. 12 Notre Dame football first-round draft pick of the last 25 years: Brady Quinn
2007 NFL Draft: Round 1, Pick 22
Cleveland Browns, 2007–2009
Denver Broncos, 2010–2011
Kansas City Chiefs, 2012
Seattle Seahawks, 2013 (Did not make team)
New York Jets, 2013
St. Louis Rams, 2013
Miami Dolphins, 2014 (Did not make team)
Having recently been named Slap the Sign’s biggest NFL draft bust from the Fighting Irish, Brady Quinn registers as the lowest-ranked draft pick of the last two and a half decades for multiple reasons.
The first is the most obvious: his teams didn’t win with No. 10 (or later in Kansas City, No. 9) under center. Quinn had a 4-16 record as a starter between his time as an active player on the Browns and the Chiefs.
The second? He was no longer the efficient QB he was in college, completing less than 54% of his passes after having a 63.4% completion rate in his final two seasons at Notre Dame.