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Tampa Bay Buccaneers select Notre Dame cornerback Benjamin Morrison in second round of 2025 NFL Draft

IMG_7504by:Jack Soble•about 23 hours•

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Benjamin Morrison
Notre Dame CB Benjamin Morrison. (Mike Miller/Blue & Gold)

Benjamin Morrison‘s college career ended too soon, but after three prolific seasons, he became Notre Dame’s highest-drafted cornerback since Bobby Taylor in 1995.

Morrison, despite missing the second half of the 2024 season with a hip injury, became a second-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft on Friday night. He’ll join the Tampa Bay Bucaneers, who selected him with the No. 53 overall pick.

The Phoenix Brophy Prep graduate was considered a likely first-round pick before undergoing season-ending surgery. Medical concerns dropped him to Day 2.

As a true freshman in 2022, Morrison burst onto the national scene with 6 interceptions. He followed up his freshman All-American campaign with 3 in 2023. Evaluators lauded the job he did that season against star Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., holding the eventual No. 4 overall pick to 3 receptions for 32 yards.

Morrison’s stickiness in coverage became one of Notre Dame’s most valuable assets, as the Irish constructed a top-five defense in 2023 and 2024. Then-defensive coordinator Al Golden leaned heavily into man coverage and exotic blitz packages, and Morrison was the lynchpin of what allowed him to do that.

For his career, Morrison allowed 59 receptions on 129 targets (45.7 percent) for 700 yards (5.4 yards per attempt), 4 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. He allowed a passer rating of 44.1; for reference, an incomplete pass results in a passer rating of 39.6.

Morrison finished his time at Notre Dame with 84 tackles (61 solo), 5 tackles for loss, 9 interceptions and 18 passes defended.

Due to his hip injury, Morrison did not work out at either the NFL Scouting Combine or Notre Dame’s Pro Day. Instead, he held a private workout at Brophy, which 25 NFL teams attended.

Morrison did not undergo athletic testing, but he did go through positional drills and felt he proved to NFL teams that his hip is as strong as it was before the injury.

“My biggest thing was not just to show that I’m healthy but that I’m the No. 1 corner,” Morrison said, according to the Arizona Republic. “I think a lot of people forgot. That’s why I did this. I showed I can move and be healthy.”

Morrison, a four-star recruit, came to Notre Dame as the No. 342 prospect and No. 37 cornerback in the On3 Industry Ranking. The Irish knew when he arrived on campus in June 2022 that he was far more than that.

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