Riley Leonard injury: Greg McElroy discusses what's next for Notre Dame at quarterback

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard injured his posterior labrum on his non-throwing shoulder in a 16-14 loss to Northern Illinois last week but is expected to play at Purdue in Week 3, On3’s Pete Nakos reported Tuesday and Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman alluded to Thursday.

ESPN analyst Greg McElroy discussed Leonard’s reported injury Thursday on his show, “Always College Football with Greg McElroy.”

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“Now, can you play with that injury? Yes, you can play,” McElroy said. We have seen Mitch Trubisky play with [an injury to] his non-throwing shoulder. We have seen Baker Mayfield suffer partially-torn labrums and still finish the year.

“Notre Dame with [Leonard], though, let’s just be honest — he’s a dual threat. This is not the NFL. He’s a dual-threat guy, so he’s going to be asked to run the football. He’s run for over 1,000 yards in his career. He’s run for over 17 touchdowns in his career. He’s played 20 games, and what he does best is keep people honest with his legs. Can you be effective putting your shoulder down if necessary when your labrum is not currently at 100%? That is something I’ll be watching closely.”

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Leonard hasn’t hit the ground running at Notre Dame like he wanted to. He has yet to throw a touchdown pass or, according to Pro Football Focus, complete a pass traveling 20 or more air yards. Although he authored a game-winning drive at then-No. 20 Texas A&M, he failed to hold off a pesky NIU squad last week in Notre Dame stadium, going just 20-of-32 for only 163 passing yards and two interceptions. He has, however, netted 79 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Leonard missed five games last season at Duke with an ankle injury, which required TightRope surgery. He missed time in the spring because of a second ankle operation. And now he’s dealing with an issue to his non-throwing shoulder.

“If Riley Leonard isn’t effective because of the shoulder, what does that mean for Notre Dame?” McElroy said. “Well, you can anticipate Steve Angeli, probably as of this moment, playing over CJ Carr and sophomore Kenny Minchey.

“Now, [Angeli] received most of the first-team reps in the spring. He also received all the first-team reps for the Sun Bowl preparation against Oregon State. And against Oregon State, Angeli played pretty well. He was 15-of-19 [for] 232 [yards], three touchdowns and also ran the ball pretty well. And on the downfield throws, something I think that’s going to be really important for Notre Dame as they continue to move forward, he was 3-for-5 on passes that traveled 20 or more yards downfield, and those three went for 108 yards.

“So far, just so you know, Riley Leonard’s 0-for-2 with an interception on throws like that this year. So if they do have to go to the backup at some point because of injury or ineffectiveness, I do think they have some capable backups there in South Bend.”

Notre Dame, which dropped from No. 5 to No. 18 in the AP Poll this week, will play against 1-0 Purdue this weekend in West Lafayette.