Ex-Notre Dame football star announces his presence on Monday night

As the Notre Dame football team tries to calibrate for the rest of this season, there are several former Fighting Irish stars that are busy demonstrating just how good the program is by demonstrating their talent.

Chief among those players was a rookie defensive lineman who was rather quiet for the Washington Commanders before Monday night. Then he went up against one of the best offenses in the NFL and had a bit of a coming out party.

Javontae Jean-Baptiste is busy showing that he can be an impact player in the NFL. While he hasn’t had that much of an impact, the former Notre Dame football star has gotten himself some serious playing time of late. And against the Cincinnati Bengals, he recorded his first ever professional sack.

The sack was an impressive one too. He charged through the offensive line, shoved off an offensive lineman and took down quartebrack Joe Burrow just as Burrow was starting to go into a scramble.

Former Notre Dame football star Javontae Jean-Baptiste shines on Monday night

Jean-Baptiste’s first sack was also his first tackle of the season. That despite the fact that the defensive lineman has played in all three Commanders games. 

If his career in South Bend is any indication he’s only going to get better as he goes along. While he was only in town for one season, he came on as 2023 wound down. It was a career season, by a wide margin.

In his only season with Notre Dame football, Javontae Jean-Baptiste amassed 49 tackles, 11 tackles for loss and 5 sacks. He also a pass defended, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.