NFL Draft Analyst: Four Notre Dame Offensive Linemen Should Be Picked
There was little suspense regarding the stay-or-go decisions for a trio of three-year starting Notre Dame offensive linemen.
Even though the NCAA awarded all 2020 college football players a free year of eligibility, left tackle Liam Eichenberg and right guard Tommy Kraemer were still highly unlikely to return for a sixth year. The same goes for right tackle Robert Hainsey, but for a fifth season. The tackles had accepted Senior Bowl invitations before Notre Dame’s season was over.
Only left guard Aaron Banks, who had a fifth-year option available prior to the NCAA’s move, offered some suspense in his plans. A three-year starter himself, he joined his teammates in the 2021 NFL Draft. All of them decided it was time to get paid to play football, which scouts and draft analysts see as the likely outcome for each.
Banks announced his decision shortly after Notre Dame’s season ended with a Rose Bowl loss to Alabama. A starter since mid-2018, he put forth an impressive senior year in pass protection and as a run blocker. The 6-6, 330-pound Banks was a consensus All-American. Per Pro Football Focus, he allowed zero sacks and 10 pressures all year, the only Irish offensive linemen to allow fewer than one pressure per game.
“I have a round-three grade on him right now, but it’s an early round-three grade with a chance to move up,” NFL Draft Analyst Matt Miller said. “It’s a decent interior offensive line class, not great. I wouldn’t be surprised if he floats up a little bit.”
Eichenberg is viewed as the best prospect of the bunch and passed up a possible top-three round selection a year ago to return for a fifth season. The goal was to push his stock into the first round. That’s not the consensus now, but his 2020 tape helped him. He did not give up a sack for the second straight season. His 90.1 PFF run blocking grade ranked ninth among Football Bowl Subdivision tackles. PFF ranks him as the No. 50 overall prospect in the draft.
If Eichenberg is a second-rounder, it would snap the run of Notre Dame left tackles becoming first-round picks that started with Zack Martin in 2010, Brian Kelly’s first year at head coach. Eichenberg is the fourth left tackle of his tenure. A strong crop of tackles may push Eichenberg out of the first round and end the streak, but Miller expects him to be taken early.
“You love the experience there,” Miller said. “Even going back to last year, there are guys he’s handling on film that no one else in the country was able to [handle].”
The tape is enough to sell an NFL team on Eichenberg, but Miller sees his college choice itself as a bonus. Notre Dame’s track record of producing NFL linemen should be a factor in his and his teammates’ evaluations.
“With offensive line play, not just at tackle,” Miller said, “we’ve reverted back to ‘Let’s go back to these traditional powers — the Notre Dames, Wisconsins, Michigans — and look for guys who are doing NFL things instead of going to Texas A&M and drafting an athlete who you then have to hope can transition, learn the positions, bulk up and add strength. We know what these guys can do and we’ll plug them right into a scheme.
“It helps when you have Zack Martin and Quenton Nelson, who step into the NFL and are one of the best at their position. It helps Aaron Banks. It helps Robert Hainsey. It helps Liam Eichenberg. You know what that is, what this guy has been asked to do in college, know where he’s at from a strength and conditioning standpoint, know what the staff has put on his plate. There’s not as much of a projection.”
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