After a fun and fantastic 2024 season, six former Notre Dame football players managed to hear their names during the 2025 NFL Draft as they were drafted. Then eight players were either signed as undrafted free agents or received rookie minicamp invites. For a team that made it to the national championship game, having only six players drafted is quite surprising.
Head coach Marcus Freeman and his staff are now looking to have a repeat of 2024, but with a different ending result. While the main focus is on this upcoming team that should be able to get back to the big game, it’s also going to be fun to see which recently drafted players out of Notre Dame can make an impact in the NFL.
While Fighting Irish fans are getting excited for the start of the season for Notre Dame, which kicks off Sunday, August 31st at Miami, there are three recently drafted NFL players that could make the school and fanbase proud sooner than later.
3 recent Notre Dame football players who can make an early statement in 2025 NFL season
LB Jack Kiser - Jacksonville Jaguars
Picked early on the third day of the draft, linebacker Jack Kiser heads from South Bend to Northern Florida as he was drafted by the rebuilding Jacksonville Jaguars. Going into a new era down in Duval county, the Jaguars need all the help that they can get. Kiser is not only a great player on the field, but he’s an even better person off the field.
Jacksonville needs maturity in the locker room and Kiser brings that, even as a rookie. General manager James Gladstone has shown that he is not afraid to make roster changes, even if it’s not the most popular one.
Kiser could easily earn some playing time this season considering that he is part of the turnaround of the franchise and the Jaguars are going in a different direction with this new regime. This might just be a great setup for Kiser to being his NFL career.
S Xavier Watts - Atlanta Falcons
I would have easily thought that Xavier Watts would have gone earlier than in the late third round, but he finally heard his name called on the second day as he was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons. One common theme about Atlanta is that their defense is always their achilles heel.
With Watts joining the Falcons, he joins a team that is led by a defensive-minded coach in Raheem Morris and he gets the opportunity to learn from a quality veteran in Jessie Bates III. Being one of the most underrated safeties in the game for a long time, Bates will have the chance to mentor Watts which will help with his development.
Maybe that could be as early as this season and be part of a newly revamped defensive unit in Atlanta.
CB Benjamin Morrison - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
A lot of analysts had projected that Benjamin Morrison would have sneaked his way into the end of the first round. Instead, he waited a little bit but was eventually drafted in the second round by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Out of him, Kiser, and Watts, Morrison is joining the best situation. He gets a proven defensive-minded coach in Todd Bowles and he joins a team that has owned the NFC South the last four seasons.
Now granted, the Bucs needed help on defense desperately. The fact that they didn’t go with defense in the first round was quite shocking. They instead drafted Ohio State wideout Emeka Egbuka. However, they somehow managed to steal Morrison in the second round.
As long as Morrison stays healthy, don’t be surprised to see his name pop up on the highlight reel that shows him making phenomenal plays.