Ryan Clark raves about Notre Dame’s Kyle Hamilton ahead of NFL Draft
By the end of the night, Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton should know what his next move is. The 6-4, 220-pound Georgia native has seen his draft stock fall a bit in recent days, but nearly every mock draft still has him off the board by the 20th pick.
Ahead of the draft, ESPN’s NFL Live team is live from Las Vegas. They dedicated a portion of their Thursday afternoon show to the Irish favorite.
“Kyle’s a unicorn,” said Ryan Clark, a former LSU safety, 12-year NFL veteran and ESPN analyst. “You don’t get guys that are that tall, that versatile, and able to bend in the way that he can. He’s also a player that can play on all three levels of the defense in the pass game.
“His anticipation, his instincts are top-level.”
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Clark showed video of Hamilton operating effectively as a linebacker, safety and everything in between, including the famous cross-field interception he had in the first game of 2021 at Florida State.
“Now here’s the play that many people point to as to why Kyle Hamilton is different,” Clark said. “He erases the play on the sideline.”
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Clark concluded with a comment from when the two first encountered each other five years ago. At the time, Hamilton was a four-star recruit out of Atlanta Marist School. He ended up as the No. 6 safety in his class, No. 9 player from Georgia and No. 62 player nationally in the 2019 class according to On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.
“I met him when he was 17,” Clark said. “We were at a Nike camp, and he was getting beat a little bit in one-on-ones covering wide receivers. I said ‘If he can get out there and go press man on short, quick and fast guys, what will he do when he’s in the middle of the field?
“It immediately translated to Notre Dame, and it will immediately translate to the NFL.”
Clark is correct. It did immediately translate to Notre Dame. As a freshman, Hamilton had four interceptions. He wasted no time upon arrival, picking off a pass in the second game of his career when New Mexico visited South Bend. Over his three-year Notre Dame career, Hamilton allowed just one touchdown reception, per Pro Football Focus. His opponents had a passer rating of 25.9.
BlueandGold.com’s Patrick Engel has the latest on Hamilton’s potential landing spots here.
