Reviewing the Redshirts is an off-season project meant to resurrect discussion about the 2022 Notre Dame freshmen who retained a year of eligibility and discuss their possible impact in 2023 and beyond. The Fighting Irish were able to redshirt 17 players this past season while 1 player medically retired (Joey Tanona) and another player has transferred already to Syracuse (Jayden Bellamy).

Today we’ll take a look at a highly rated tight end who was on track to burn his redshirt but suffered a really discouraging knee injury.

TE Eli Raridon

Hometown: Des Moines, Iowa
Height: 6-6 3/4
Weight: 245

247Sports Composite Ranking: 4-star, No. 5 TE, No. 3 IA, No. 173 National, 0.9310 score

18 Stripes Grade: 95.3

Murtaugh’s Blurb from the Class Grade:

Probably the most athletic pass-catching tight end Notre Dame has signed in recent memory. He moves so well for his height and genuinely looks like someone who will break off a bunch of long touchdowns in college. Maybe a little too skinny to jump right into a bunch of playing time for the Irish. Having him rehab his knee injury and take a redshirt year while he gets bigger and isn’t dealing with Michael Mayer’s shadow will be good, I think. I like his physicality and blocking ability too. His ceiling is extremely high.

I personally handed out a 96 for Raridon during last year’s recruiting cycle which is tied with 8 others since the 2015 class for my 2nd highest grade, only eclipsed by a pair of 97’s for Jaylen Sneed and another player whose evaluation whiff I’m definitely not publicizing. Jump into the comment section and see if you can guess it.

Raridon tore his ACL in late 2021 during his high school basketball season and then tore the same ACL in his right knee in late October during his freshman season with the Irish.

Need at Position: Medium-to-Low

Including Raridon, Notre Dame will head into 2023 with 6 tight ends on the roster which isn’t a small number. That includes former walk-on Davis Sherwood who saw the field occasionally in 2022. Also, rising redshirt junior Kevin Bauman tore his ACL just about one month before Raridon and is making his way back to full health this off-season, too.

The unit as a whole has 11 career receptions, so while yes it’s Notre Dame and good things are expected, someone like Raridon could end up being a key piece to the 2023 team.

Expected Spot on the 2023 Depth Chart: 3rd String

I was going to start out by saying perhaps it’s better if Raridon comes along really slowly in his ACL recovery, almost to the point where you think about keeping him on the sidelines for the majority of the 2023 season. I can’t imagine tearing an ACL again, for the 3rd time, all in consecutive years. That would be super tough to come back from mentally and physically.

If healthy, the future is still so bright for Raridon and in his case it’s important to remember he still has 4 more years at Notre Dame. I am really high on his skill-set and it’s tempting to get him going right from the first game in Ireland but maybe more patience is the smart thing to do.

Then again, he will have 2 more months of recovery time for this 2nd injury compared to last season and even if he’s not playing in games he’d still be putting tons of pressure on his knee during practice and workouts anyway. I am sure that Mitchell Evans and Holden Staes are going to hold down most of the 1st-team reps this off-season. However, Raridon could turn into a big-play target and has to be salivating at the chance to line up next to Sam Hartman at quarterback.