Notre Dame loses another starter on offense to the NFL Draft.
Sometimes I think fans kind of glaze over the departure of offensive linemen. Regardless if the player is transferring or leaving for the NFL — it never really is met with as much concern as other positions. Maybe it’s because we look at the offensive line as more of a unit than a “room” when we go down the depth chart — and you wouldn’t be wrong.
Still, any puzzle piece missing is a puzzle that’s much harder to put together. Notre Dame’s puzzle along the offensive line for 2026 took a hit this weekend when starting right tackle, Aamil Wagner, decided to leave a year of eligibility behind and enter the NFL Draft.
Wagner was a captain for Notre Dame and started every game in 2025 and 2024 (28). He has been as steady of a player as any on the Notre Dame football team — and now he’s gone.
One thing we know for certain along the offensive line, is that however Notre Dame starts the year, the starting five linemen will likely be different by the end of the year due to injuries.
Even before the transfer portal opens, Notre Dame is positioned to make a big run in 2026, but the offensive line is going to have to be one of the better units in the country to really make that happen. Losing a player like Wagner makes that more difficult — but not impossible.
There are several players we are still waiting to hear about as far as their futures with Notre Dame are considered. Billy Schrauth and Charles Jagusah (arguably Notre Dame’s most talented two linemen) are definitely the two that we are all hoping return, but there are rumors that say something else could happen.
Ashton Craig and Joe Otting are likely the 1 and 3 at center, but the other four spots could go a number of different ways with Schrauth and/or Jagusah on the team. Anthonie Knapp has started most of the games from the past two seasons at LT, and we saw big contributions from Guerby Lambert and Sullivan Absher. We heard a lot of good things about freshman Will Black, and he figures to be much more involved next season.
So… we’ll have to wait and see what kind of configuration Joe Rudolph wants to roll with moving forward. However that configuration looks, it may not be as good as it could have been had Wagner chose to stay in South Bend for one more year.
Category: General Sports
