Don’t blink, or you’ll miss the plot twist. This ain’t your average rise-and-fall tale. We’re talking about a dude who flipped from hoop dreams to gridiron guts, dragged a blue-blood program back from the dead, and now might not even hear his name called come draft night. Sounds like a script straight out of Netflix, right? But nah, this is real life. And Riley Leonard? He’s sitting at the intersection of ‘What could have been’ and ‘What the hell now?’

Back in 2023, Riley Leonard was that injury-prone transfer from Duke, barely a blip on anyone’s Heisman radar. But man, 2024? Riley Leonard turned South Bend into a national stage. He didn’t just show up at Notre Dame, he showed out. Leonard racked up 2,861 passing yards and 21 TDs and casually added 906 on the ground with 17 more on legs. That tied a school record for rushing TDs by a QB, in case you were counting. The kid was cooking. And Notre Dame? 11-1 regular season, Natty run, fans losing their minds. Cinderella run, for real. Until they ran into Ohio State, who pulled the slipper off and tossed it in the trash.

But here’s the twist: Riley might’ve balled out, but the NFL scouts ain’t exactly drooling. Most mock drafts got him sitting way back—like 6th or 7th round back. Some even got the man going undrafted. It’s wild. Just a few months ago, Riley Leonard was flexing in the CFP, and now he’s a maybe? That’s tough.

Then, on April 9, Barstool dropped a gem on their Instagram. Leonard popped up on Ep. 2 of Gruden’s QB Class and decided to spill some tea. When former Raiders HC, Jon Gruden showed a high-school clip of him making a break-way dunking like a man possessed and asked if that was really him, Riley just nodded and laid it out and spilled: “I think if you ask anybody from my hometown about me, they’ll probably say, ‘Oh, Riley, the basketball player.’ That’s kinda how I’m known back home. I was gonna go play college basketball. That was, that was the plan. Gonna go play in the EYBL (Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball league) COVID hits and EYBL gets shut down. So I wasn’t able to pick up the offers that I wanted.” 

Wait… what? Basketball? Yeah, you heard right. Leonard was a dawg on the court at Fairhope High in Alabama. Averaged over 20 points and 8 boards per game. Had offers from legit programs. But then COVID hit, EYBL got shut down, and poof—basketball dreams gone. “Luckily, through my high school football coach and David Morris… it was the only football offer I had, but as soon as he did, I took it and ran with it,” he said. So now here we are. Riley Leonard, the almost-hooper turned natty-hero, is possibly looking at a Day 3 pick or even a free-agent phone call. But there are a lot ‘What if’s in the scenario. What if he chose hoops? What if EYBL didn’t get canceled? Like, what if Notre Dame won the Natty? Like Kanye West once said: “I guess we’ll never know.”

Riley Leonard’s draft analysis and evaluation

Let’s keep it real: This 2025 QB class ain’t exactly loaded with killers. That should work in Riley’s favor. But NFL execs? They’re cautious. They don’t see Leonard as a starter from Day 1. Backup vibes, maybe QB3 in a camp. But that doesn’t mean he ain’t got what it takes. The man’s 6’4″, 212, moves like a wideout, and has shown he can carry a team on his back.

The scouts love his mobility. Designed runs? Boy, he loved that at South Bend. Escaping pressure behind shaky O-lines at Duke and Notre Dame? He’s been there, done that, got the bruises. He knows how to make something out of nothing, especially when pocket collapses. Plus, he’s sneaky accurate on the short stuff. Hit those underneath routes like a surgeon on a double shift. But, alright, let’s stop with the glazing; he ain’t perfect. Deep ball? Still a question mark. It might be the receivers, might be him—probably both. But NFL GMs ain’t gonna lose sleep trying to figure it out unless they see some deep-shot confidence real soon.

His upside? Think somewhere between Taysom Hill (if he stuck at QB) and Sam Howell (maybe). Not a franchise guy right now, but what if he lands in a quarterback-friendly system? That could turn into a steal. College Sports Network got him at No. 254 overall. That’s barely in the door. Meanwhile, some March mocks had him sneaking into Round 4. That’s a nosedive if we ever saw one. But hey, sometimes the underdog bark is louder than the hype train.

Look, Steelers might peep him late, ’cause let’s be honest—We all know that Mason Rudolph ain’t scaring nobody. And Dolphins? After that Zach Wilson gamble, they need insurance for Tua bad. Leonard could slide in as QB3 and develop behind the scenes. He’s got the big boy legs, got that catholic-backed heart, and clearly, diabolical hunger. What he needs now is just a shot.

Riley Leonard bet on football when basketball vanished, bet on himself when no one else did, and took Notre Dame to the big stage. Now, all he needs is one more bet from a team bold enough to roll the dice on a baller who’s already proved he’s got that dawg in him. But the question is: Who’s got the guts to cash in?