Pair of Notre Dame football players at the top of 2025 NFL Draft prospects

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard who is hurt, dresses and throws some pre-game passes
Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard who is hurt, dresses and throws some pre-game passes / MANDATORY CREDIT GREG SWIERCZ / USA
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Notre Dame football ended the 2024 NFL Draft with seven players getting drafted, but only one of those seven, Joe Alt was taken in the first round. If the "way too early" predictions of how next year's draft is going to go is accurate, it appears the Fighting Irish have a couple of contenders to go improve the number of guys taken for the Golden Domers.

It is of course, very early. It's impossible to know just how things are going to play out in the 2024 season. For starters, there's almost a few of the guys on Yahoo Sports list of top 2025 NFL Draft prospects are going to have very disappointing seasons. Some will almost certainly get hurt too.

And for the guys on the list for Notre Dame football, they're already hurt. That's the most interesting part of this particular Top 25 ranking. Both entries on the list will need to get healthy before they can live up to the projections.

2025 NFL draft prospects: Notre Dame football's rising stars

Benjamin Morrison and Riley Leonard both missed all or nearly all of Notre Dame's spring practices with injuries. Morrison had a shoulder issue, Leonard the same ankle issues that caused his 2023 season to be shortened.

There's reason to be hopeful about the recovery of both Leonard and Morrison. The medical prognosis is positive, and they're expected to be back in action by the start of fall camp. The question remains, can they maintain their health and performance once the tackles start again?

If he can, if Leonard can have the kind of season that Yahoo!'s Nate Tice expects, then he's currently listed as the 20th-best prospect available for the 2025 NFL Draft. That has him, by the way, as the current top quarterback prospect. That will almost certainly raise some eyebrows. 

He's ranked ahead of Georgia's Carson Beck (23rd) and Shedeur Sanders (27th).

Meanwhile, Benjamin Morrison is considered the 12th-ranked prospect on the list. That has him as the 3rd best corner in the draft class, behind Michigan's Will Johnson (5th) and Colorado's Travis Hunter (11th).

Now we just sit back and wait to see if the Notre Dame football stars can get healthy, stay healthy and put up stellar seasons.