New Orleans Saints select Isaiah Foskey in second round of 2023 NFL Draft

Isaiah Foskey put together quite the career at Notre Dame, notably over the last two seasons. Now, he’s off to the NFL.

The New Orleans Saints selected Foskey with the No. 40 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. He’s coming off back-to-back seasons as Notre Dame’s sacks leader and will try to have that same impact in the league. In 2021, Foskey had 10.0 sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss, and he followed that up with an even bigger 2022 season in which he totaled 10.5 sacks and 13.5 tackles for loss to anchor the Fighting Irish defense.

The biggest game of his career came as a senior this past season when he had 3.0 sacks and five tackles to help lead Notre Dame past UNLV 44-21. All told, in his four seasons with the Fighting Irish, Foskey had 121 tackles, 28.0 tackles for loss and 25.0 sacks.

At the NFL scouting combine, Foskey opened some eyes with his 40-yard dash time. He ran a 4.64 in the event, which ranked sixth of the defensive ends to participate. He also turned in a 34″ vertical jump and a 10′ 5″ broad jump.

Foskey played high school football at De La Salle (Calif.) High School, where he was a four-star prospect. He was the No. 205 overall recruit in the 2019 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

What NFL Draft analysts are saying about Isaiah Foskey

Foskey put together some impressive tape during his time at Notre Dame, and the numbers backed it up. NFL scouts took notice, as well. NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein said although he had some areas to improve heading into the draft, Foskey could become a starter in the right scheme.

“Forward-charging edge defender whose best football could be ahead of him,” Zierlein wrote. “He relies heavily on a long-arm rush attack and with a ghost move counter, but he’ll need to more effectively use his rush hands to help trip the edge as he lacks hip flexion to consistently dip and flatten to quarterbacks.

“His pressing play style and range in space should create opportunities to cause disruptions, but he lacks anchor as an edge-setter and needs to go to school with take-on technique. There are slight limitations in his game, but he’s going to keep getting better and has future starting potential as a 4-3 defensive end.”