Now that Eli Raridon is officially a member of the New England Patriots, the debate over whether Notre Dame is the true "Tight End U" is over. It's hard to imagine another school can really make a claim at this point, given just how impressive ND's history is with their TE1 and the NFL Draft.
With the third-round selection of Raridon by the Patriots, the Irish kept a streak going that other programs should be jealous of. Every single TE1 from Notre Dame has been drafted over the last 20 years. The 2006 selection of Anthony Fasano started this run, and the only thing that's caused breaks in the streak has been if the team's starting tight end wasn't eligible for the draft.
Notre Dame tight end Eli Raridon keeps incredible NFL Draft streak alive
Raridon's selection shows that once Notre Dame pinpoints their starting tight end, even if that tight end doesn't put up huge numbers, they're still plenty impressive. Of course, in the case of Raridon he put up pretty big numbers, especially considering his very limited action before 2025.
Raridon posted career highs in catches (32) and yards (482). He also showed he could stretch the field, averaging 15.1 yards per catch. If there was one area where he fell short, it was in finding the end zone, but the Irish tended to turn to Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price in the red zone.
Notre Dame has a stake on Tight End U
More importantly than Raridon's stats last season is how impressive the Irish have been in creating NFL-caliber tight ends for decades:
- Anthony Fasano (2006)
- John Carlson (2008)
- Kyle Rudolph (2011)
- Tyler Eifert (2013)
- Troy Niklas (2014)
- Ben Koyack (2015)
- Durham Smythe (2018)
- Alize Mack (2019)
- Cole Kmet (2020)
- Tommy Tremble (2021)
- Michael Mayer (2023)
- Mitchell Evans (2025)
- Eli Raridon (2026)
Notre Dame will have a new TE1 in 2026. Seeing if the Fighting Irish can keep the streak going is just another reason to keep watching the team closely.
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