Jack Kiser has tried not to pay too much attention to the mock draft projections ahead of this week’s NFL draft.
But the talk can be difficult to avoid. Especially when Kiser’s buddies are texting him about what they have seen from various publications. “You really have no clue on some of these mock drafts,” Kiser said, “because some of those teams I haven’t even talked to.”
Projections are all over the map for the 24-year-old Kiser, the 2018 record-breaking Mr. Football from tiny Pioneer High School who went on to captain a Notre Dame team that played for the national championship in January.
The final Pro Football Focus mock draft has Kiser going in the fourth round with pick No. 134 overall to the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Other projections have Kiser going in the fifth or sixth round. Dane Brugler of The Athletic projected him to the Washington Commanders with the No. 205 overall pick in the sixth round.
What does it all mean? Not much, Kiser said as he was leaving the grocery store Tuesday morning in South Bend.
“There could be an early run on linebackers and all of a sudden I’m looking at round three or four,” Kiser said. “Or it could be the opposite. The first linebackers don’t go off the board until rounds two, three and that pushes me down to round six, seven. I really have no clue. I haven’t been looking at that too much. That’s my agent’s job to figure out where I’m going to go with what round and what pick. The hay is in the barn for me. I’m just trying to make sure that I enjoy the moment.”
The NFL draft begins Thursday night in Green Bay, Wisc., with the first round, then the second and third rounds Friday and rounds four through seven Saturday. Kiser will be back home in Royal Center (population: 797) — “spending time with family and not watching the clock,” he said with a laugh — where it all began for him.
Kiser, the youngest of four children to Aaron and Deborah, progressed through elementary, middle school and high school to become one of the top football players in the state by his senior year, leading Pioneer to back-to-back Class A state championships. Kiser’s stats were staggering as a senior for a 15-0 team that outscored its opponents 936-39. He ran for 2,109 yards and 44 touchdowns and passed for 1,183 yards and 18 TDs, while piling up 159 tackles, seven interceptions, six forced fumbles and five fumble recoveries at linebacker.
But even all of those accolades in high school seemed far away from where Kiser would eventually land as an anchor of the Notre Dame defense.
“You see how my career started as a redshirted special teamer and then started to make my impact on defense and became a leader,” Kiser said. “You look back at it and think, ‘This kid from Pioneer High School in Royal Center, playing triple option quarterback, is now the captain of Notre Dame Fighting Irish.’ It’s pretty surreal. And if you would have told me I would have been in college for six years … I don’t know. But it’s really been the best thing for me and it’s been a heck of a journey, for sure.”
Kiser, who will get married in June to fiancé Meghan Chan, has had the chance to come back and talk to kids in his hometown. He is sometimes asked for the “magic recipe” to his success or what he did differently than others.
“For me, it was just that I showed up every day,” he said. “I had two older brothers. I watched them and saw what they did at Pioneer High School and how they played football. I tagged along during weights in the winter in fifth grade. I just started doing whatever they were doing. I didn’t think anything of it, just going to work every single day trying to get better. I just put trust in the fact that if you work every day, do what the coaches are telling you to do and are a great teammate, things will generally work out.”
Kiser has been in South Bend working out with other potential Notre Dame draftees like tight end Mitch Evans, defensive back Max Hurleman, running back Devyn Ford and kicker Mitch Jeter, along with linebacker Marist Liufau, who was drafted in the third round last year by the Dallas Cowboys.
Though there is a wide range of projections for Kiser, his positive and negative attributes appear relatively obvious. On the plus side, he is “one of the cleaner prospects.”
“When I’ve been on the phone with teams or coaches, they have told me that I don’t have a lot of red flags around me,” Kiser said. “Teams have told me my biggest upside is my football IQ, my instincts and that whole side of the game. I don’t have insane measurables in terms of my arm length and height, but I always find a way to be around the ball and be in the right place. I’m communicating on the field and helping other guys. That’s kind of the word I’ve gotten from other teams.”
On the negative side are more of the combine statistics. Kiser, who played more games than any player in Notre Dame history and finished his career with 275 tackles, 17 tackles for loss and four interceptions, is projected as a fifth or sixth round pick by analyst Lance Zierlein of NFL.com. Among Kiser’s strengths, Zierlein listed “rarely allows broken tackles once he gets his claws in” and among weaknesses “limited wingspan could create tackling issues versus speed.”
“My arms are a little short, but (seven-time Pro Bowl linebacker) Luke Kuechly has 32-inch arms,” Kiser said. “As long as it doesn’t impact you, and if you look at my tackling rate, I had one of the lowest missed tackling rates in the country, I’ve tried to show that my short arms aren’t to my disadvantage. I have ways of making up for it. Just because I have short arms doesn’t mean I get stuck on blocks. I can be creative and have anticipation.”
Someday, Kiser might be the one making decisions on potential draftees. He graduated cum laude in May of 2022 with a degree in business analytics and earned his masters in accounting. Kiser earned the Tom Frecka Academic Achievement Award for posting the top grade-point average (3.97) in the Notre Dame Master of Accountancy program.
“Ideally my dream job would be to stay in the sports world and help be in a front office somewhere and build a roster,” he said. “Be the GM/cap guy and understanding cap vs. cash and contract negotiations and talent acquisition and all of that. All of the different metrics that you can find in human performance. That’s right in my wheelhouse. But at the same time, it’s so hard to get into that because there are so few opportunities.”
But there are few who can understand better than Kiser what it means to take advantage of your opportunities. From Royal Center to South Bend to wherever he goes next.
“I remember my first workout on campus thinking, ‘I’ve got to be the one who goes the longest and does the most,’” Kiser said. “Because I’m from a small school, I always had a chip on my shoulder. It took me three years longer than some of the guys in my class, but at the same time, I hopefully get the opportunity to get drafted and land somewhere and make a long career hopefully.”
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 270-4904.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: NFL draft: Where will Notre Dame LB Jack Kiser be picked?