Aaron Banks’ chance to start came suddenly and unexpectedly.
A 2018 ACL tear suffered by Alex Bars opened the door for him to slide in at left guard. He wasn’t the first option Notre Dame turned to as Bars’ replacement, but he proved to be the best one.
Injury created opportunity. Banks turned that opportunity into 31 straight starts, consensus All-American status in 2020 and now, an NFL career that will start with the team closest to his hometown.
The 49ers selected Banks in the second round and 48th overall Friday in the 2021 NFL Draft. The 6-5, 325-pound guard from Alameda, Calif. is the second Notre Dame player picked this year and the sixth Irish linemen chosen in the top three rounds since 2016. He joins left tackle Liam Eichenberg (No. 42, Miami Dolphins) as 2020 Notre Dame starting linemen picked in this draft.
Per Spotrac’s rookie wage scale, Banks will sign a four-year contract worth $7,073,601.
A mid-second round selection is on the earlier end of his draft stock. Banks was pegged as anything from a mid-to-late second-round pick to early Day 3 selection. Most draft analysts considered him a top-100 player.
"Notre Dame offensive linemen [getting drafted], we see it each and every year," NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah said on the draft broadcast. "This is a big, massive guard who in pass protection you just can’t get through him. He’s just too big and powerful. In the run game, he’s able to turn you, he’s a finisher."
Banks reached this point by staying on a continued upward path since he arrived in January 2017 as a top-150 recruit out of El Cerrito (Calif.) High. That trajectory only became publicly noticeable as he stayed in the lineup. Head coach Brian Kelly trusted him to work out the bumps expected of a then-sophomore inserted midseason into the starting five.
“He’s a big and athletic kid that has gained confidence in his ability,” Kelly said of Banks in 2018.
Banks kept his job in 2019 despite offseason foot issues that required summer surgery to fix. He started all 13 games, allowing two sacks and just nine pressures. He followed it up in 2020 by allowing zero sacks and only 10 pressures in 12 starts. He was a critical part of a Notre Dame offensive line that was a finalist for the Joe Moore Award. He earned first-team All-America recognition from the Associated Press and AFCA.
Following his standout senior season, he put his name in the NFL Draft and bypassed a fifth year. He checked the boxes as a big-bodied physical guard who would be difficult to move off his spot. Mobility, though, was one area in question.
Banks’ March 31 pro day performance ought to have helped answer it. His 4.91-second 20-yard shuttle 7.33-second three-cone drill are adequate times for a man his size. He may not have plus mobility for an interior lineman, but he’s not made of sludge either. The three-cone time was faster than Eichenberg (7.53) and Irish right tackle Robert Hainsey (7.57).
“Is he able to move the way you want a guard to move to pass-protect in the NFL?” Mike Renner, Pro Football Focus’ lead draft analyst, told BlueandGold.com earlier in April. “I thought his shuttle and his cone weren’t great, but they tick that box. They were what you wanted to see.”
Added Jeremiah: "He’s not the most athletic offensive lineman so maybe a little bit of a surprise there with San Francisco, I thought they might value a little more of that foot quickness. But what he can do is come off the ball and move you in the run game, and you aren’t going to be able to get through him in pass protection."
Notre Dame landed Banks’ commitment in December 2016 when he chose the Irish over Oregon, Tennessee and Michigan. He’s the third member of Notre Dame’s 2017 class to be drafted.
In San Francisco, Banks reunites with former Irish teammate and 49ers starting tackle Mike McGlinchey.
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