Former Notre Dame cornerback Troy Pride Jr is making some positive news this week at practices for this weekend’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. In fact, the speedy corner is likely skyrocketing up teams’ draft boards with an impressive week of practice against some of the nation’s best wide receivers.
Here is was Michael Renner of Pro Football Focus had to say about Pride’s performance in Mobile so far this week:
I’m not sure anyone has risen their draft stock more with their performance this week than the Notre Dame cornerback. In a fairly weak cornerback group here in Mobile, Pride has been the clear cream of the crop. He’s locked down Michael Pittman Jr., James Proche and Quartney Davis on highly impressive reps through the first couple days. His elite speed and smooth hips have him completely unafraid of getting beaten deep. With question marks about his press technique and ability to play the catch point heading into the week, Pride has been fantastic in both.
And here is a brief look at what Pride has been doing in practice.
Notre Dame CB Troy Pride Jr. may be the biggest draft board riser this week. pic.twitter.com/0cKXwvDb9f
— PFF College (@PFF_College) January 23, 2020
Some Notre Dame fans have a short memory with Pride and focus on his 2019 campaign being solid, but not spectacular. They forget, however, that Pride was playing a bit out of position this year at the boundary position vacated by Julian Love as opposed to his more natural field position where his speed and elite athleticism shine.
In 2018, when Pride was strictly playing the field position, he was lights out in the second half of the season and was arguably playing as good, if not better, than Jim Thorpe Award finalist, Julian Love.
It will be interesting to see where Pride ends up being drafted. As Renner mentioned above, this draft class is not particularly deep at CB, and Pride’s testing numbers at the combine will be eye-popping. He is going to run a blazing 40-yard dash, and he’ll put up elite agility numbers. Combine his performance this week in Mobile, with the testing numbers he will produce, and a weak cornerback class and we could be hearing Pride’s name called a lot earlier than most Notre Dame fans would have thought.
At this point, we could be hearing Pride’s name be the second or third name called among the Notre Dame draft-eligible players given where other Golden Domers have been ranked in mock draft and top player lists.
Troy Pride isn’t the only Notre Dame player in Mobile this week. Jalen Elliott and Chase Claypool are participating as well with Elliott taking home the defensive back of the week honors for the North squad. Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly and running game coordinator Lance Taylor took out some time from their recruiting travels to visit the Irish trio.
Excited to catch up with our guys before Saturday’s @seniorbowl as they chase their NFL dreams!#GraduatingChampions pic.twitter.com/SbyQrUXnte
— Brian Kelly (@CoachBrianKelly) January 22, 2020
Tune in to ESPN tomorrow at 2:30 ET to watch all three Irish players as they look to catch the eyes of NFL executives and scouts.
Troy Pride is among the least recognized difference maker in the last two seasons.
From how he played as a sophomore to now be among the top DBs soon to be drafted shows his development as much as any starter these last two seasons. His coverage skills are only surpassed by his elite speed. Looking forward to watch him play on Sundays.
Makes you question our coaching. The Miles Boykin effect again. If he was lights out as a field corner he never should have been playing boundary. By switching him we weakened the entire secondary. Great for Troy but hope this trend doesn’t continue
The reason he played at boundary in 2019 was out of need because the combination of Pride/Crawford and Pride/Bracy where they played was better than any combination with Pride at field. If anything it speaks to how the Notre Dame coaching staff manufactured an elite pass defense in 2019. Notre Dame was 5th in pass efficiency in 2019. That is in the country. But hey, let’s talk about how bad the coaching is.
THANK YOU FRANK!! NEVER a word of praise for the ND STAFF! ALWAYS NO MATTER WHAT A NEGATIVE RESPONSE FOR KELLY AND HIS STAFF ON THIS SITE!! Everybody in the country says Book coming back is a big plus, but here it’s PJ is transferring what will we do? PJ had 2 years to beat out Book and couldn’t, and by all accounts CLARKE was passing him for the back up job!! What a joke!!
don’t destroy the narrative…..purple man bad.
Frank, I’m not sure I buy that Pride’s “regression” in 2019 was 100% due to position change. I’m not saying the coaching sucks, but rather are we allowed to look at a position coach and ask if they got the most out of a player? Nothing unfair about being curious why a B player suddenly looks like an A+ immediately after leaving the program. Lea is a fantastic coach and I’ve said as much in prior posts. Also not about Kelly as he’s too high level. Just disappointing when a recent player flashes at combine or the next level and you say, “Wow, where was THAT when he was here?” A lot of talk about ND needing to close the talent gap with elite teams. It’s critical to maximize the talent you already have.