Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard picked by Indianapolis Colts in NFL Draft
Riley Leonard has detractors. The Indianapolis Colts aren’t among them.
Leonard’s got people who saw the way he played in a 16-14 Notre Dame loss to Northern Illinois and won’t ever forgive him for it, even if he took the Fighting Irish all the way to the national championship game by way of a 13-game winning streak thereafter.
He’s got people who are hard on him for much more than an off-day against a vastly inferior opponent, people who say his playing style — rough and tough running just as if not more important than actually accurately throwing the ball — doesn’t lend itself to a sustainable career in the National Football League.
To all of them, Leonard can say he’s an NFL draftee.
He was selected No. 189 overall by the Colts in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL Draft on Saturday.
No doubt, Leonard is a project. It’s why he was the ninth quarterback taken in the draft and why some — detractors, skeptics, realists, whatever you want to call them — wouldn’t have been surprised if he wasn’t picked at all. Those inside the Notre Dame program, though, would have definitely been stunned if he never heard his name called.
They know what he’s all about.
“Riley is a competitor,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said this past November. “He’s a fighter. He doesn’t feel bad for himself. He doesn’t want pity. He wants to work. And that’s what I’ve learned about Riley Leonard.
“I learned most about him after Week 2 when we were down. Anybody can be up when you’re having success, but he continued to work and now he understands that he determines how good he can be. Right? So he continues to put the work in.”
Leonard guided Notre Dame to a 14-2 record in 2024. The Irish’s only other loss was to Ohio State in the national title. Leonard was 22-of-31 for 255 yards with 2 touchdown passes and 0 interceptions in that game. He ran 17 times for 40 yards and another score.
In his one season at Notre Dame, Leonard completed 269-of-403 pass attempts (66.7 percent) for 2,861 yards with 21 TD and 8 INT. He was credited with 184 rushing attempts, more than anyone else on the Notre Dame roster, for 906 yards and a single-season school record 17 rushing touchdowns.
Leonard was enrolled at Duke for the first three years of his career. The Fairhope, Ala., native aspired to walk onto the Blue Devils basketball team, but he leaned into his football career instead.
Encompassing his 21 starts at Duke and 16 at Notre Dame, along with any spot duty he was assigned in Durham, Leonard completed his college career 651-of-1,022 (63.7 percent) through the air with 7,311 passing yards. He had a touchdown to interception ratio of 45:18. As a runner, he logged 413 attempts for 2,130 yards and 36 touchdowns.
Leonard is a rare breed who spent a full four years in college. Not one fewer, not any more. His next four years will be about proving doubters wrong and remaining in the league as long as he can. He’s got the makeup of someone who’ll stay a while.
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