When it comes to Notre Dame and the NFL, the Irish are becoming known as Tight End U. However, when it comes to another position, the program hasn’t been anywhere near as successful.
This offseason, the Fighting Irish did send a former signal-caller the next level in Riley Leonard. There are even some people who think he might eventually be able to compete for a starting job at some point. Of course, that’s part of the problem for the Indianapolis Colts.
Notre Dame alumni face uphill battles in beleaguered NFL QB rooms
Riley Leonard has been named as being part of one of the worst quarterback rooms in the entire NFL. Meanwhile, a former Fighting Irish coach has been saddled with his own terrible QB room and he’s going to have to try and turn it around. Either way, the Notre Dame football team is unfortunately all over the worst QB groups in the league.
Garrett Podell of CBS Sports recently put together a list of the 10 worst QB rooms in the NFL and Riley Leonard’s group came in at No. 2 with a bullet. In other words, there is exactly one other team in the entire league with a worse situation under center.
With Anthony Richardson, Daniel Jones, Riley Leonard, and Jason Bean the biggest issue is that there isn’t a guy that stands out as an obvious starter.
Though Leonard did get an endorsement of sorts:
“Athletic, dual-threat Riley Leonard was selected in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL Draft after leading Notre Dame to becoming the national runner-ups in the 2024 season. He's somewhat of a project as are all of the quarterback in the Colts' quarterback room.”
And then there’s Tommy Rees and the Cleveland Browns. The good news is that the new offensive coordinator is only saddled with the third worst position group in the league, according to Podell.
With selections of Deshaun Watson, Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders, Podell thinks Flacco of all people will be the starter in Week 1.
“The most chaotic quarterback room in the NFL resides in Cleveland. It's not the worst quarterback room, but it's definitely the most chaotic. There's $230 million man Deshaun Watson recovering from a torn Achilles amid a historically disappointing tenure in Cleveland. Former Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco returned on a one-year deal at the age of 40 just a couple years removed from his 2023 NFL Comeback Player of the Year campaign in Cleveland.”
Notre Dame football can’t be loving that it has its fingerprints on two of the worst rooms in the league. But there is a chance that things could get better.