The biggest sport in America holds its 88th edition of the NFL Draft beginning this Thursday in Kansas City. They will be setting up a stage in the plaza outside Union Station right in the central part of the city. Did you know Wikipedia has a nice list of all the Notre Dame players ever drafted by the NFL? You can view that HERE.

Like last year, you’ll find the NFL Draft on television if you surf long enough but we’ll give you the channels down below.

The 2023 NFL Draft

Day 1
Round 1
Thursday, April 27th
8:00 PM ET

Day 2
Rounds 2-3
Friday, April 28th
7:00 PM ET

Day 3
Rounds 4-7
Saturday, April 29th
12:00 PM ET

*TV Coverage will be on ABC, ESPN, and NFL Network for every round.

This spring, we featured scouting reports on the 5 Notre Dame players we believe could be drafted, plus another article on the other long-shot hopefuls.

18 Stripes Scouting Reports:

TE Michael Mayer
OL Jarrett Patterson
DT Jayson Ademilola 
DE Isaiah Foskey
S Brandon Joseph
The Fringe Prospects

It looks like the vast majority of mock drafts have only 3 to 4 Irish players getting drafted, with Joseph being likely but maybe not a 100% sure thing. If the mocks are to be believed, Jayson Ademilola probably isn’t hearing his name this weekend. Here’s the full draft order for all 259 selections:

Tankathon FULL NFL Draft Order

18 Stripes Mock 1st Round Draft

This year I went with a a mock draft entirely chosen by random via Pro Football Focus. Full disclosure, this was written pre-Aaron Rodgers trade to New York. For this 1st round mock, the Jets now have the 15th overall pick previously owned by Green Bay and the Packers now have the 13th overall selection.

The latest reports are that Young feels pretty confident he’s headed to Carolina. Stroud shares the same agent as Deshaun Watson and there is scuttlebutt that the Texans want nothing to do with that relationship anymore. I can’t blame them! Although, if you really believe in Stroud perhaps that’s something you could work out rather easily if you felt so inclined.

I’m going to go right ahead and say that Quentin Johnson going this high would be insane. I think there’s high bust potential and in year’s past this would be a typical Lions mistake. Don’t do it, Detroit! We’ve seen 11 wide receivers go 6th overall or higher since 2000 and it’s a pretty mixed bunch of results for those players’ careers. Johnson to the Lions is shades of Tennessee taking Corey Davis 5th overall in 2017. He’s a nice player but nowhere near that valuable.

This simulation has Michael Mayer going to the Cowboys, which the consensus seems to be that he won’t fall past Dallas in that slot. It also doesn’t have Mayer as the first pick off the board, more on this below.

The 3 Biggest Storylines of the 1st Round

1) Will the Bears Regret Trading the Top Pick?

This was the 13th time since the AFL/NFL merger that a franchise traded the no. 1 overall pick. In case you missed it, the Panthers traded this haul to the Bears for the right to pick first in 2023:

  • WR DJ Moore
  • 2023 first-round pick (No. 9)
  • 2023 second-round pick (No. 61)
  • 2024 first-round pick and
  • 2025 second-round pick.

Some other no. 1 picks traded away from history include QB Jared Goff, QB Michael Vick, OT Orlando Pace, RB Ki-Jana Carter, DT Russell Maryland, QB Jeff George, WR Irving Fryar, and RB Earl Campbell.

Some of the picks taken (and other assets) from the hauls after giving away the No. 1 pick include RB Derrick Henry, RB LaDanian Tomlinson, OT Walter Jones, QB Kerry Collins, WR Andre Rison, QB Doug Williams, and our very own former All-American Notre Dame tackle George Kunz who was traded to the Baltimore Colts in 1975 when Atlanta took quarterback Steve Bartkowski first overall.

2) Nick Saban’s Unassailable Draft Record

Alabama is projected to have 3 players picked in the 1st round, and possibly a 4th if a team moves up a bit and takes running back Jahmyr Gibbs (this isn’t likely though). If it ends up being “just” 3 that will make it 44 picks in the 1st round for Alabama players under Nick Saban.

If Michael Mayer is picked on Thursday it’ll be Notre Dame’s 11th first round pick over the same time span.

If Bryce Young does go no. 1 overall it would be a first for Saban at Alabama, though. It doesn’t seem possibly but he’s never had a Crimson Tide player go first in the draft.

3) Michael Mayer–Not the First Tight End Off the Board?

PFF freaking loves Dalton Kincaid out of Utah but if he truly ends up going inside the top 15 something may be wrong. I don’t look at the Jets (or Packers now!) and think “they might just be a tight end away!” either. He’d be the 4th highest drafted tight end in over 15 years, so I’m betting against that.

Mayer is also competing with Georgia’s Darnell Washington, Iowa’s Sam Laporta, and Oregon State’s Luke Musgrave for the top tight end in the draft.

Drafting a Hawkeye over Michael Mayer is offensive and should lead to prison time. Musgrave is intriguing but he’s coming of a knee injury and that’s really more of a ceiling pick even in the 2nd round.

With all the jawing back and forth between people in the Mayer vs. Brock Bowers arguments wouldn’t it be so dumb for Washington–Georgia’s other tight end–to go ahead of Mayer? It’s probably not happening but that’s a big freaking athlete who might have a really interesting NFL career.