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Newsstand: Two Notre Dame prospects in top 50 of consensus NFL Draft big board

IMG_7504by:Jack Soble•04/16/25•

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xavier watts-7
Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts. (Chad Weaver, Blue & Gold)

Notre Dame defensive backs Benjamin Morrison and Xavier Watts are Nos. 47 and 50, respectively, on The Athletic’s 2025 NFL Draft consensus big board as of Monday’s update.

The consensus big board “combines rankings from a wide range of NFL Draft experts to identify how the top prospects are viewed relative to the rest of their class,” per The Athletic. Nos. 47 and 50 puts Morrison and Watts in the middle of the second round, projecting them to hear their names called on April 25.

Morrison was considered a first-round prospect before suffering a season-ending hip injury in October. Watts saw his draft stock rise dramatically throughout his fifth and final season in South Bend, intercepting 6 passes and improving several aspects of his game to become a complete safety.

For The Athletic’s full consensus big board, click here.

Notre Dame Tweets of the day

It was a successful and sunny Blue-Gold Game on Saturday.

Don’t forget Benjamin Morrison was considered a first-round pick before his October hip injury.

What they said.

Quote of the day

“That was a situation that became public, but I think it happens all over the country. You have representatives for players and representatives for the university that are kind of having those discussions, but that one was a public one.

“The reality is, our players are getting compensated, deserve to get compensated. What you don’t want to do is what I’m sure you’ve heard many coaches say, is you don’t want players to make a temporary decision based off a temporary decision based off a temporary situation that’s going to affect them longterm. Transactional decisions aren’t always the best ones for your future.

“Every situation is different. Every football program is different. But at the end of the day, you want to do what’s right for college football — between what’s right for college football but also what’s right for our players. You don’t want this public disagreement to really tarnish what’s really good about our profession and our sport.”

— Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman on former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava leaving the Volunteers over a contract dispute

Headlines of the day

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