The Notre Dame Fighting Irish haven\u2019t played football since November 29th, but with the Super Bowl over, the NFL is gearing up for the 2026 offseason including the 2026 NFL Draft. With several former Notre Dame players expected to be drafted this year, we are hosting a Q&A with the NFL fans around SB Nation\u2019s extensive network.<\/p>\n
Here are a few sentences on each potential Irish player heading to the NFL, but I encourage you to drop your questions into the comments below. (If you\u2019re visiting from and NFL team site and are logged in, you don\u2019t need a new account.)<\/p>\n
What Notre Dame players are going to be drafted in 2026?<\/p>\n
Here is a list of the players that have a shot of being drafted in 2026, including some players that could end up as undrafted free agents at the next level.<\/p>\n
Love was the best running back in the country last year and it was easy to see why. His incredible athleticism and speed allowed him to make highlight reel runs regularly as he turned nothing into a whole lot of something. What\u2019s not widely known is how physical Love can be when running the ball, but also while blocking opponents.<\/p>\n
With his body frame and wingspan Fields has an incredible catch radius. He was clearly the best receiver for the Irish this year, and his Senior Bowl week performance showed his great potential at the next level.<\/p>\n
Price is considered to be the #2 back in the draft, but in the hearts of many Irish fans, he was 1B all along. Not only does Price have elite burst and good top end speed, he has the best running vision of the duo and does some of his best work weaving in and out of traffic.<\/p>\n
Notre Dame\u2019s offense didn\u2019t rely on the tight end this season as much as it has in the past, but Raridon was a reliable target for CJ Carr all season. He has every physical tool to be good in the NFL, but he does need to work on his field awareness as the sideline sometimes became a mortal enemy.<\/p>\n
Wagner was a steady right tackle for Notre Dame for the last two seasons. He\u2019s technically sound as a pass blocker, but does need to improve his physicality as a run blocker at the next level.<\/p>\n
Jalen was a consistently good tackler from the safety position, but he does need to improve his hips in coverage. Still \u2014 he was very instinctive and seemed to put himself in good position most of the time.<\/p>\n
Schrauth was Notre Dame\u2019s best offensive lineman all season until his injury. He\u2019s physical, and does a really good job of getting to where he needs to be when he is pulled. There is a big \u201cnasty\u201d streak to Schrauth\u2019s game which stems from an incredible work ethic.<\/p>\n
Notre Dame keeps bringing in veteran DB\u2019s to be the starter at nickel, and Smith didn\u2019t disappoint when healthy. He has a good nose for the ball, and doesn\u2019t get beat in coverage despite his aggressiveness against the run.<\/p>\n
More potential Irish in the 2026 NFL rookie class<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Notre Dame Fighting Irish haven\u2019t played football since November 29th, but with the Super Bowl over, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[399,349,214265,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-458772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-nfl-irish","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}