Though Notre Dame football will be represented by eight former players at this year's NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, the Irish action will be limited in Lucas Oil Stadium throughout the week.
That's because Notre Dame's players just finished the 2024 season a little more than five weeks ago in a 34-23 loss to Ohio State in the CFP National Championship Game on Jan. 20. Both former Irish and former Buckeyes players are being very selective on what they're willing to do in front of NFL personnel with such little prep time to maximize their performances, especially in the testing portions of the workouts.
The workouts for players hoping to be selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, which will be held in Green Bay, Wisc., on April 24-26, began Thursday and run through Sunday. Each day will feature the following position groups: defensive linemen and linebackers on Thursday, defensive backs and tight ends on Friday, quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers on Saturday (starting at 1 p.m. EST) and offensive linemen on Sunday (1 p.m.). Portions of the testing and drills can be watched on NFL Network.
Inside ND Sports will track below how Notre Dame's former players fared at the NFL Scouting Combine and what they did or didn't participate in.
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TE Mitchell Evans
Unlike his former teammates at this year’s NFL Scouting Combine, tight end Mitchell Evans let himself get measured beyond height, weight and the length of his arms and hands. Evans became the first and only former Notre Dame player to run and jump in the testing portion of the 2025 annual event at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Evans did better in the running than the jumping Friday evening. The 6-foot-5, 258-pound Evans ran a 40-yard dash in 4.74 seconds. His time ranked in a tie for seventh among the 14 tight ends who completed the sprint. But Evans weighed more than all six of the tight ends who ran faster than him and outweighed all but one of them by more than 10 pounds.
Oregon’s Terrance Ferguson (6-5, 247) ran the best 40 among tight ends at 4.63. Evans tied Ferguson for the best 10-yard split among tight ends at 1.55.
Michael Mayer, the record-setting Notre Dame tight end who was selected in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft, ran his 40-yard dash in 4.70 seconds during his combine performance in 2023.
Evans' vertical jump (31 inches) and broad jump (9 feet, 7 inches) were near the bottom of the tight end pool, which didn’t include all of the 21 tight ends who were invited to participate. His arms were measured at 31 and 7/8 inches, and his hands were measured at 9 1/2 inches.
Like the rest of the tight ends, Evans didn't complete the three-cone drill or 20-yard shuttle. The bench press event for tight ends is scheduled for Saturday.
Evans entered the week ranked by Pro Football Focus as the No. 7 tight end in this year’s NFL Draft class. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. ranked him eighth at the position.
Evans missed five games in his sophomore season due to a broken foot and five games in his junior season due to a torn ACL. He finished his career with 77 catches for 903 yards and five touchdowns in 45 career games.
S Xavier Watts
After starting all 16 games for Notre Dame this past season and playing a team-high 970 defensive snaps, which was the second most in the FBS per Pro Football Focus, former Irish safety Xavier Watts wasn’t ready to go through the athletic testing and position drills at the NFL Scouting Combine on Friday.
Watts, who measured in Friday at 6-foot and 204 pounds with an arm length of 31 and 1/4 inches and hand length of 8 and 5/8 inches, also skipped the Senior Bowl in late January.
“I played a lot of ball the past two years, especially this long season,” Watts said of the skipping the Senior Bowl. “We just played the longest college football season ever. So just that turnaround was kind of hard to just go out there and go do another four days of football, and I just played in the national championship and playoff games.”
Watts will participate in Notre Dame’s Pro Day later this year.
“I feel like I need more time to get right,” Watts said.
Watts has been labeled as one of the top five safeties in this draft class, according to multiple draft analysts earlier this month. The 2023 Unanimous All-American and 2024 Consensus All-American finished his Notre Dame career with 13 interceptions, 18 pass breakups, 188 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, two recovered fumbles and 1.5 sacks.
CB Benjamin Morrison
Benjamin Morrison was cleared recently by his doctor to ramp up preparations for NFL-level testing and drills. But Morrison isn’t quite ready to put his rehabilitated hip, which required surgery in October, to the test yet. Morrison won’t put his full recovery on display at Notre Dame’s Pro Day either. He’s planning a private workout for NFL eyes in April.
“Just allow the teams to come out and see what I already know about myself,” Morrison said, “but allow 'em to see it for them.”
Morrison, who measured Friday at 6-foot and 193 pounds with an arm length of 30 and 3/8 inches and a hand length of 9 and 1/4 inches, missed the final 10 games of Notre Dame’s 2024 season. Earlier this month, draft analysts placed Morrison from No. 2 to No. 7 among cornerbacks in this year’s draft.
Morrison finished his Notre Dame career with nine interceptions, 18 pass breakups, 84 tackles and 4.5 tackles for loss in 31 games across three seasons.
LB Jack Kiser
Jack Kiser played in all 16 games for Notre Dame last season and even participated in Senior Bowl practices and played in the Feb. 1 showcase for NFL Draft hopefuls. However, Kiser limited his participation in Indianapolis to linebacker drills and will wait until Notre Dame's Pro Day to complete his physical testing.
Pro Football Focus ranked Kiser as the No. 8 linebacker in the draft pool earlier this month. ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. listed Kiser just outside his top 10 off-ball linebackers.
Kiser finished his Notre Dame career with 275 tackles, 16 tackles for loss, six sacks, seven pass breakups, six forced fumbles, four interceptions and two fumble recoveries in six seasons. He set the program record with 70 games played.
DT Howard Cross III
Howard Cross III missed three November games for Notre Dame this past season with a left ankle injury. He played through the pain in all four of Notre Dame's College Football Playoff games, but he opted to not participate in Thursday's physical testing and workouts.
Cross measured in at 6-foot-1 and 285 pounds with an arm length of 32 and 1/4 inches and hand length of 10 and 1/2 inches. Cross did not make the Pro Football Focus big board of the top 200 draft prospects earlier this month.
Cross finished his Notre Dame career with 169 tackles, 19.5 tackles for loss, 11 sacks and three forced fumbles in six seasons.
DT Rylie Mills
Rylie Mills tore the ACL in his right knee in Notre Dame's 27-17 win over Indiana on Dec. 20 in the first round of the College Football Playoff. As a result, Mills wasn't active in physical testing or workouts at the combine.
Mills measured in at 6-foot-5 and 291 pounds with an arm length of 32 and 5/8 inches and hand length of 9 and 7/8 inches. Pro Football Focus ranked Mills as the No. 14 interior defensive linemen in the draft pool earlier this month.
Mills finished his Notre Dame career with 131 tackles, 25 tackles for loss, 17 sacks and two fumble recoveries in five seasons.
Still to come
Notre Dame's two other combine invitees are quarterback Riley Leonard and wide receiver Beaux Collins.
Collins said this week that he won't participate in testing or position drills this week. Leonard said he plans to throw during quarterback drills Saturday, but he will not participate in testing.
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