Four former Notre Dame players make PFF’s three-year NFL Draft positional rankings
NFL Draft classes vary from year to year, both in personnel in the literal sense and in strength relative to previous years. On Wednesday, PFF analyst (and Notre Dame alum) Mike Renner released lists ranking 10 players at every position who were taken in the last three NFL Drafts.
“Contextualizing talent is one of the most difficult things about scouting college football players,” Renner said. “For example, the scouting reports for Aaron Donald and Sheldon Rankins coming out would have both said ‘impressive get-off,’ but that’s not truly indicative of the fear Donald’s first step strikes into opponents.
“Being able to properly compare a player’s talents across draft classes and to the NFL as a whole can provide better insight into how a player should be valued in the draft.”
Four former Notre Dame players made the cut.
Note: Players are listed in the order in which PFF laid out the position groups.
Carolina Panthers TE Tommy Tremble
Tremble checks in as the No. 5 tight end on Renner’s list. He was taken in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft by the Panthers and had a productive rookie season. The 6-4, 250-pound ferocious blocker caught 20 balls for 180 yards and a score. He also ran for a touchdown, and at 21 years and 113 days old, Tremble became the youngest tight end in NFL history to rush for a score.
Chicago Bears TE Cole Kmet
Notre Dame has sent more tight ends to the NFL than any other program in the country in the last decade, so it is fitting that there is a second former Irish tight end on the list. Kmet is No. 7 in the rankings. He was a second-rounder in the 2020 NFL Draft.
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The tight end earned the starting spot with the Chicago Bears last season, and he caught 60 balls for 612 yards. Through two years in the league, he is the only member of the 2020 tight end draft class to eclipse the 500-yard mark with a total of 855 receiving yards. With a shaky receiving corps in Chicago this year, expect Kmet to play an even bigger role in the offense for the 2022 Bears.
Cleveland Browns LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah
The former Irish defenseman is the fifth-ranked linebacker over the last three draft classes, per Renner. He fell into the second round in 2021 before the Browns got the steal.
The 6-2, 220-pound lengthy linebacker, who doubles as a rover as needed, made 76 stops with 1.5 sacks and two forced fumbles over 14 games during his inaugural season. Owusu-Koramoah made a total of 10 starts and spent part of the season on the reserve/COVID-19 list. In other words, the damage he did could have been worse. The performance landed him on PFF’s All-Rookie Team.
Fellow 2021 draftee and Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons took the top spot; he was the 2021 Associated Press Defensive Rookie of the Year.
Baltimore Ravens SAF Kyle Hamilton
According to Renner, Hamilton is the best safety to come off an NFL Draft board in the last three years. Five of the 10 players on the list were taken in this year’s draft, a testament to how strong the position group was this year and also to Hamilton’s potential.
“This is yet another position that’s seen a dearth of talent entering the league in recent years,” Renner said. “The NFL seemingly agreed, as no team drafted a safety in the first round in either 2020 or 2021.”
Including Hamilton, who went No. 14 overall to the Ravens, three safeties were taken in the first round of the draft this year. The other two were Daxton Hill (No. 31 to the Cincinnati Bengals) and Lewis Cine (No. 32 to the Minnesota Vikings).
