Now that his Notre Dame football and Duke playing days are over, Riley Leonard has some work to do proving to the NFL that he’s worth a draft choice. That work started this week when he went to practice at the Senior Bowl.
Leonard has shown what he can do during his time in South Bend and Durham. He could throw the ball well and run over, around, and through defenders during his career. And despite a decent career completion percentage, if there’s one thing Leonard has to prove to his detractors to get drafted, it’s that he can be a real weapon passing the ball.
While a few Senior Bowl practices isn’t prove anything, the Notre Dame football quarterback did some things that impressed onlookers. That included one play where he lined up under center, ran a play-action pass, and hit a dime to his receiver.
Riley Leonard: Under center. Play-action. Dime. https://t.co/jCY2XhYmrQ
— Matt Freeman (@mattfreeman05_) January 28, 2025
Notre Dame football quarterback impresses onlookers at Senior Bowl
Matt Freeman posted the video of Riley Leonard earlier this week and the thing that stood out most to people who watched was that it’s a skill the quarterback hasn’t shown much, especially this season.
Leonard hasn’t lined up under center much this year. He’s lined up under center and thrown a pass even less often. And it looks like he’s able to do that pretty darn well.
Granted, it was one play. It was a play in a Senior Bowl that is a glorified scrimmage. But it’s still a period of time where players are trying to show that they are the best of the best.
It’s also worth pointing out that Leonard’s misses on certain high profile attempts is part of the problem. If you asked the average Notre Dame football fan what his completion percentage was this year, almost none of them would guess he hit nearly 67% of his passes, let alone that he was just 106 yards shy of a career high, while logging a career high in touchdown passes with 21.
That’s to say nothing about how often he showed he could be a real dual threat player, rushing for a career high 900 yards and 17 touchdowns. He did everything he could to lead Notre Dame football to a title. He fell just short. Now he’s doing everything he can to get to the next level.