Where Michael Mayer, three other Notre Dame players appear in ESPN seven-round mock draft
Draft week is here, and with it a flood of deception, leaks and rumors that are unmatched by other times in the football calendar. It’s when the most links between teams and players emerge and when the motivation for unknown parties to leak new information about prospects reaches its apex. A widely projected destination for Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer, though, continues to hold firm.
Many draft analysts continue to hear the Dallas Cowboys like him at pick No. 26 in the first round. Their mock drafts reflect it. The Cowboys taking Mayer makes sense for a tight end-friendly team looking to replace a departed starter. ESPN’s Matt Miller put him there in a full seven-round mock released Sunday.
“‘There is no way in hell Jerry Jones passes up a Jason Witten clone if he’s on the board.’ That’s how one rival scout with over 20 years in the business described this projection,” Miller wrote. “Mayer would be a safety valve in the middle of the field for Dak Prescott; he caught 180 passes for 2,099 yards and 18 touchdowns over three seasons in South Bend. Mayer is a great run-blocker but also might have the best hands of any pass-catcher in this class.”
Mayer is the second tight end taken in Miller’s mock, going behind Utah’s Dalton Kincaid at No. 15. Mayer as TE2 behind Kincaid remains the most frequent projection among recent mocks.
Notre Dame has four players among the 259 projected picks, with defensive end Isaiah Foskey the second one taken. He’s a second-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles at No. 62 overall.
“With Derek Barnett and Brandon Graham likely nearing the end of their runs in Philadelphia, the front office has to add more bodies and start finding affordable starters and rotational rushers so crucial to this team,” Miller wrote. “Foskey is coming off back-to-back 11-sack seasons, and at 6-5 and 264 pounds, he has the size the Eagles like at D-end.”
Two Notre Dame players appear on Day 3: offensive lineman Jarrett Patterson, who goes in the fifth round at No. 168 overall to the Arizona Cardinals. Safety Brandon Joseph is a seventh-round pick of the Las Vegas Raiders, going No. 220 overall.
Patterson has widely been projected as a Day 3 pick. All notable seven-round mock drafts have included him. He has firm Day 3 grades on notable big boards.
Joseph, though, has a wider range. The Athletic draft analyst Dane Brugler did not have him among the 259 picks in his seven-round mock. NFL.com’s Chad Reuter slotted him in the fifth round of his April 21 mock. CBS’ Chris Trapasso has the most optimistic outlook, putting Joseph all the way up in the third round at No. 85 to the Green Bay Packers in his mock.
