SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Audric Estimé might have a tougher time choosing between whether he was more excited Thursday for clocking a 40-yard dash of 4.58 seconds at Notre Dame’s Pro Day or that he’s likely done running 40-yard dashes in front of stopwatches for the rest of his football career.
The 5-foot-11, 222-pound Estimé really needed to improve the 4.71 he recorded at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis on March 2. Less than three weeks later, he accomplished the feat on the artificial turf inside the Irish Athletics Center.
“I did better, a lot better,” Estimé said. “I feel like I’m very fast. I feel like I can run faster, but the 40’s done with. I’ll probably never have to run it again in my life. Time to play football, and that’s what I do best is play football.”
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The 40-yard dash was the obvious flaw in Estimé’s combine performance. His time put him behind the other 20 running backs he completed the sprint this year. He fared much better in tying for fourth in the broad jump (10 feet, 5 inches) and vertical jump (38 inches). That’s why Estimé only did the 40-yard dash Thursday prior to running back drills and skipped the other testing events.
His 4.58 would have moved him ahead of the results of four running backs at the combine. Which still isn’t great, but it’s less of a red flag. That is if a 40-yard dash means that much for running backs. Former Notre Dame running back ran a 4.65 at the 2022 NFL Combine. He finished the 2023-24 NFL season as the league’s third-leading rusher with 1,144 yards for the Los Angeles Rams, who selected him in the fifth round of the draft.
“The scouts believe in me,” Estimé said. “They know I’m very athletic. Scouts watch film. They say I have really good film. Scouts I just spoke to on the field, they said I looked really good today. That’s all I could do is try to be my best. Be the best version of myself, and that’s what I did today.”
The 4.71 from the combine even surprised Estimé after he spent so much time training for it.
“I was never even in that range,” he said. “But you have some off days. I’m human. You just gotta bounce back from that. That’s really how you judge: how you bounce back from adversity. That’s why I came back today and had a little better day.”
Estimé had plenty of good days in his Notre Dame career. Last season he set the program record for single-season rushing touchdowns with 18 and his 1,341 rushing yards rank fifth in a single season at Notre Dame. He sits in seventh (29 rushing touchdowns) and 11th (2,321 rushing yards) in the program’s respective career records.
“He’s a dog,” said former Notre Dame teammate and right tackle Blake Fisher. “You see it. You can turn on the tape and see the way he runs. Football speed versus a 40 speed is a lot different. Audric Estimé is an animal.”
Estimé finished his performance Thursday with a workout led by Notre Dame running backs coach Deland McCullough. He even through in a hurdle, which he liked to use to get past defenders on occasion, just to show off everything he could do.
“The comfort level was on an all-time high,” Estimé said. “I’m back home. I’m back where I did this. I’ve been here since I was 17 years old. I ran fast on this field plenty of times. Coach Deland, he’s a big mentor in my life. Being around him makes me feel comfortable. I had a lot of confidence coming into today and doing those workouts.”
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Thomas Harper shows out
Nickelback Thomas Harper had the strongest argument to be the ninth former Notre Dame player invited to this year’s NFL Combine. Instead, the NFL only invited eight Irish players.
He used that as motivation to prepare for Notre Dame’s Pro Day.
“It hurt,” Harper said of not being invited to the combine. “That’s kind of everybody’s dream is to do crazy at the combine with everybody watching. But everything happens for a reason. Just trusting God and his plan for me. Everything worked out. Everything happens for a reason. I’m glad that I got to show what I could do here.”
Harper had inarguably the best testing day of the nine former Notre Dame players who did more than position drills or physical measurements Thursday.
“Harper did really well,” said former Notre Dame wide receiver Avery Davis, who returned for his second Notre Dame Pro Day. “He impressed everybody. He put on a show.”
The 5-10, 189-pound Harper hit 42 inches in the vertical jump, which was bested by only four players, regardless of position, at this year’s combine. And all four of those players beat it by only half an inch.
Notre Dame listed Harper as a safety Thursday, a position he played previously at Oklahoma State, though he primarily played at nickelback in his one season with the Irish. Being classified as a safety meant that Harper’s 10-6 broad jump would have been tied for fourth at the position at the combine. And his 4.48 in the 40 would have slated him in a tie for seventh among safeties.
“I proved my athleticism,” Harper said. “That I’m athletic enough to play at the next level.”
Harper totaled 39 tackles, six tackles for loss, two sacks, three pass breakups and one forced fumble in 11 games for the Irish last season. He missed the Louisville game with a concussion and quietly opted out of the Sun Bowl. Harper revealed Thursday that he decided to have a minor procedure to take care of palmar fasciitis in his hand, which influenced his Sun Bowl absence.
“I just wanted to get it cleaned up so I could have this process without having to sit out of anything,” Harper said. “I just wanted to be healthy for this process.”
Mission accomplished — even if he was tired by the end of Thursday’s workout.
“We’re not doing a lot, but everything is high intensity,’ Harper said. “Definitely the fatigue during the end. Just had to push through. Kind of felt like a fourth quarter.”
The story behind JD Bertrand’s boot
When former Notre Dame linebacker JD Bertrand spoke to reporters the day before he was scheduled for his NFL Combine workout, his injured foot wasn’t a topic of conversation. The next day he was spotted wearing a boot on his right leg and not participating in the workout.
The 6-1, 235-pound Bertrand didn’t need a boot Thursday, but he still remained sidelined from the workout. That’s because he’s still recovering from a torn plantar fascia in his foot that occurred on the first day of practices at the Senior Bowl in late January.
Bertrand, who was practicing with fellow Irish linebacker Marist Liufau in Mobile, Ala., knew what was wrong in the first period of individual drills.
“I told Marist, I just heard two pops,” Bertrand said. “I was like, I think I just tore it. It’s painful. He would occasionally when we were walking into the meetings, he’d look how I’m walking and tell me, ‘Oh, you gotta put more weight on it.’”
Bertrand, who led the Irish in tackles each of the last three seasons, tried to hide the injury and played through the pain. He recorded three tackles and one tackle for loss in the game after being named the top practice linebacker on the National team by his teammates.
“I felt so sorry for him that it happened,” Liufau said. “But JD’s a tough dude. If there’s one thing I learned about him in my five years it’s that he’s a tough dude. He’s going to work. He’s going to get done what he needs to get done. He’s a special player. It’s a privilege to have played with him and get to know him over the years. He’s one of my best friends that I ever had right now.”
Bertrand is starting to reach the part of his recovery where he can resume running. He’s hoping to be fully cleared by mid-April and put together some sort of workout before the April 25-27 draft.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” Bertrand said. “As a competitor you want to be out there. I’m lucky that it’s nothing too big. It’ll heal up and I’ll be ready to go by the time the season starts, rookie minicamp and all that.”
Outside of his rehab, Bertrand has been putting his energy into learning as much as he can through film study.
“So each week, I’ve been choosing a linebacker to watch. Last week was Bobby Wagner. Two weeks ago was Fred Warner. The best ones in the NFL,” Bertrand said. “One, I’m just watching them and what kind of technique and stuff that they do really well. But then also watching certain offenses and see what kind of scheme, how different the NFL is from college.”
He could only watch Liufau go through the linebacker drills Thursday and provide moral support.
“I was actually just telling him,” Liufau said, “before our linebacker drills, ‘I miss you, bro. I wish you could be out there with us.’ I know he’ll be back. He’ll be ready to go. JD’s a special player, and I have no doubt that a team will pick him up and he’ll be successful wherever he goes.”
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