Where Notre Dame NFL Combine invitees’ draft stocks stand entering big week

The NFL Combine has the power to vault a player’s stock or crater it.

The annual scouting confab in Indianapolis brings in more than 300 draft prospects each year for on-field testing, medical reviews, up-to-date measurements, workouts, team interviews and more. These few days are as crucial to any player’s outlook as any other event in the predraft process. There will be winners who boost their stock this week. Others will hurt it.

Five Notre Dame players are at the combine this year, and they range from a predicted top-five selection to fringe draft picks. To put any post-combine move in context, it helps to know where a player stands entering the week. Here’s where the latest mock drafts and top prospects lists have some of Notre Dame’s combine invitees heading into this week’s events.

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Safety Kyle Hamilton

Recent mock drafts have pegged Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton as a top-five pick, with some placing him as high as No. 2 to the Detroit Lions. Pro Football Focus’ Steve Palazzolo and CBS Sports’ Chris Trapasso are among them.

“Safety is usually not in consideration in the top few picks of the draft, but Hamilton has game-changing playmaking ability,” Palazzolo wrote. “His length and range bring incredible versatility to any defense, and he ranks in the 90th percentile in forcing incompletions compared to recent NFL prospects.”

CBS’ Ryan Wilson and ESPN’s Todd McShay slotted Hamilton as the third overall pick to the Houston Texans — a popular spot for him of late. Hamilton is also the No. 3 player on NFL.com draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah’s updated top 50 prospects list.

“Hamilton has rare height (6-4), length and fluidity for the safety position,” Jeremiah wrote. “Against the pass, his versatility is a major asset. He has exceptional instincts from the deep half and his range is off the charts.

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“He eats up ground quickly with his long stride and has the athleticism and speed to mirror tight ends and slot wideouts all over the field. Hamilton is an explosive blitzer from depth. He can find and play the ball with ease. Against the run, his burst and angles to the ball are highly impressive, but he will go low and miss a few tackles. I love his competitiveness and production covering punts. Hamilton has all of the tools to emerge as a Pro Bowler early in his career.”

Elsewhere, Hamilton is the No. 4 pick to the New York Jets in NFL.com analyst Chad Reuter’s most recent mock draft. He’s the No. 5 overall player in The Athletic draft analyst Dane Brugler’s top 100 and No. 2 in PFF lead draft analyst Mike Renner’s top 150.

“The former Irish star’s height, agility and ball skills remind me of the Bengals’ Jessie Bates,” Reuter wrote.

Added Brugler: “He anticipates well vs. both the pass and the run and shows the ball skills and tackling balance to be a consistent finisher. Hopefully he lands in a defensive scheme that understands how to best maximize his talent because Hamilton can be a diverse matchup weapon thanks to to his rare skill set.”

Running back Kyren Williams

The back-to-back 1,000-yard rusher is a projected Day 2 pick heading into the combine. Brugler ranks Kyren Williams as the No. 93 overall prospect and the No. 4 running back. Williams is McShay’s No. 5 running back, while Renner ranked him No. 80 overall and No. 4 at his position.

“Williams finished 2021 like a house on fire,” Renner wrote. “He racked up 14 touchdowns over his final eight games and finished with 58 broken tackles on 204 carries. He’s one of the best pass-protectors in the draft class, too, despite checking in just around 200 pounds.”

The three other Notre Dame invitees

Wide receiver Kevin Austin Jr., quarterback Jack Coan and defensive lineman Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa also accepted invitations to the combine. They do not appear on any notable top prospect rankings and project as Day 3 picks or undrafted free agents.

Coan and Tagovailoa-Amosa, though, will begin the combine with some positive momentum. Each participated in the East-West Shrine Bowl Feb. 3 and impressed NFL teams there. The consensus on both coming out of it is they should be drafted. That was a more pronounced change for Coan, whose reliability and learning habits stood out.

“He has gone from a guy who teams knew was productive and a late-round/UDFA guy, and thanks to the Shrine Bowl and reflecting on his whole career, he’s now a guy who is going to be an ideal backup with a lot of starter traits,” Shrine Bowl director of player personnel Eric Galko told BlueandGold.com. “At the very least, he has shown he can run your offense, do what he has to do to be a backup, and if he’s more, teams will assess that in the draft process.”

Tagovailoa-Amosa, meanwhile, made a strong case that he’s a man with multiple positions instead of stuck between two.

“I think Myron showed he’s not a tweener, he’s a both,” Galko said. “He showed he can play that edge rusher role, win speed to power, push offensive tackles back. He also played five-tech and three-tech and showed a variety of moves. I think his pass-rushing ability really showed out during the week of practice. The ability to win in multiple ways at multiple spots is pretty rare.”