Back in March, nearly every NFL team descended upon South Bend Indiana to lay their eyes on Joe Alt. The Notre Dame left tackle is projected to be a top 10 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, but he wasn't the only player at Notre Dame's Pro Day whose name will be called in over the three-day marathon in Detroit.
The 2024 NFL Draft will begin on Thursday, April 25 and Notre Dame has eight prospects who will likely be selected. Only Alt will be a first-rounder, but as this list will show, you don’t have to be an early pick to have an impact in the NFL.
Notre Dame has always been a football factory and since 2000, 105 players have been selected in the NFL. Many of the most recognizable names went Round 1 or 2, but the league also uncovered these “hidden gems” who were hiding in plain sight.
Over his four years at Notre Dame, Theo Riddick did it all. He began his career as a kick-returner and backup running back under Charlie Weis, but once Brian Kelly took over, Riddick moved to slot receiver for two years, before returning to the backfield as a senior.
The NFL should have viewed his versatility as a positive, but the league didn’t know what to do with the dynamic playmaker and let him fall to the sixth round. As a rookie with the Lions, Riddick only ran the ball nine times for 25 yards and caught four passes for 26, but he did enough to make the team in 2014.
In 2014, Riddick developed into a reliable third-down back and then in 2015, his third year in the league, he caught 80 passes out of the backfield for 697 yards with 43 carries for 133 on the ground.
For his seven-year career, Riddick rushed for 1,037 yards on 294 carries and caught 290 passes for 2,281 yards.
Off-ball linebackers like Drue Tranquill have become devalued in the NFL, so the LA Chargers got an absolute steal in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft. As a converted safety at 6-foot-2 234 pounds, Tranquill has proven to be big enough to become a tackling machine in the league.
In 2022, Tranquill’s fourth year with the Chargers he led the team with 146 total tackles. It was enough for the defending Super Bowl champs to value him in free agency. Tranquill signed with the Kansas City Chiefs ahead of the 2023 season and across 16 games he recorded 78 tackles with two forced fumbles and 4.5 sacks.
Now, with a Super Bowl ring on his finger, Tranquill will prepare for his second year in Kansas City.
Okwara was a gem hidden so deeply that he went undrafted in 2016 after a season with 13.5 sacks for Notre Dame. Typically a year like that would get you on the radar, but Okwara slipped through the cracks.
The Giants picked him up as a UDFA and he recorded just one sack across 22 games in two seasons. The league seemed correct on Okwara’s evaluation, but Detroit gave him another chance, and in 15 games in 2018, he posted 7.5 sacks, 14 QB hits, and eight tackles for loss.
Okwara spent the rest of his career with the Lions and in 2020 had a career-high 10 sacks. He announced his retirement after 2023 and finished his career with 25 total sacks in 92 career games.
The LA Rams essentially traded away every first-round pick they had to win a Super Bowl and it paid off in 2022, but it also forced general manager Les Snead to get very good at identifying talent late in the draft. Kyren Williams might be the best example of that.
As a rookie in 2022, Williams wasn’t very involved, only rushing the ball 35 times in 10 games, but in Year 2, he exploded. Williams played 12 games as LA’s featured running back and amassed 1,144 yards on the ground (95.3 per game) and 15 total touchdowns (12 rushing and three receiving).
Williams still has a lot of years left to play in the league, but getting one year of elite production out of a fifth-round pick makes him a “hidden gem” and one of the better fifth-round selections in recent history.
Justin Tuck was a third-round selection, so he still went on Day 2 of the 2005 NFL Draft, but for the player he turned into, he qualifies for hidden gem status. Nearly every team in the league passed on Tuck at least twice before the Giants finally pulled the trigger at No. 74 overall.
Lining up opposite Michael Strahan, Tuck became a two-time Pro-Bowler and two-time All-Pro. He posted four double-digit sacks seasons and finished his 11-year career with 66.5 sacks, 102 tackles for loss, and two Super Bowl rings.
Tuck became an iconic figure in New York Giants history for his role in the team’s two Super Bowl runs in 2008 and 2012, and is easily one of the team’s greatest third-round picks.