The Notre Dame football team had a grand total of six players go in the 2025 NFL Draft. And immediately after it was over, a seventh Fighting Irish player found out his NFL destination, even if Howard Cross III needed to get the call as an undrafted free agent.
Benjamin Morrison, Xavier Watts, Jack Kiser, Rylie Mills, Mitchell Evans and Riley Leonard were all drafted, four of those six coming on Saturday. However, it was long known there would be a couple more players getting the chance to show the NFL what they could do as UDFAs once the selections were over.
Howard Cross III gets second chance to shine with Bengals after Notre Dame breakout
Cross didn’t get drafted, but it’s pretty clear that his former Notre Dame football defensive coordinator had his eye on him for a while now. And once the draft was officially over, Al Golden and the Cincinnati Bengals signed the defensive lineman to a new contract.
Former Notre Dame DL Howard Cross III – son of longtime TE Howard Cross Jr. – is signing with the #Bengals, per source.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) April 26, 2025
The deal means that Cross will be reunited with his college defensive coordinator. And all the two did together was anchor one of the best defenses in college football. Cross was also one of the best defensive linemen around.
The only real strike against him is that he doesn’t have the size most NFL teams are looking for.
On the other hand, the son of former New York Giants tight end Howard Cross, the former Irish star knows where he can lean to find out how to make the most of this professional chance.
It will be interesting to see just how many former Notre Dame football players the Bengals decide to give a look this offseason, especially for a defense that spent the last two years being one of the worst in the entire league.
Golden has his work cut out for him. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that he’s looking at players he knows to turn to first.