Notre Dame Impact Players For 2025: No. 38 Safety JaDon Blair originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
Notre Dame is now 38 days away from kicking off the 2025 season against the Miami Hurricanes down in Hard Rock Stadium. The Irish will be relying on some impact players to get them through the home opener as well as getting them back to another run at the National Championship. I broke down who I believe will be the top 50 impactful players for Notre Dame this season. Let’s continue this countdown to kickoff with my No. 38 most impactful player, true freshman safety JaDon Blair.
Blair is the first safety to crack to top 50 and he may have the highest ceiling of the unit. Notre Dame’s safety room is in a peculiar spot heading into fall camp; the quest to replace Xavier Watts in the starting lineup continues. Blair joins a host of other players who are fighting for the starting position as well as a spot in the rotation. The competition will be close, but the true freshman has already made quite the splash so far this offseason.
What He Brings To The Table
The 6-5 North Carolina native isn’t your prototypical body type at the safety position. Blair is an extremely tall and long athlete who provides great range on the back end of the defense. His overall size doesn’t impact his ability to run well in space as well as flip his hips in coverage; Blair is an extremely smooth athlete.
In the spring, we saw Blair give multiple quarterbacks problems in pass coverage. We also saw him more than willing to fly down hill and fill the alley in the run game, screens and quick game. Some of his skillset is very comparable to former All-American safety Kyle Hamilton who now plays for the Baltimore Ravens.
Blair will be looking to carve out his name in a safety rotation that will include Virginia Tech transfer Jalen Stroman, junior Luke Talich and redshirt freshman Tae Johnson. All four of these players will have some type of role on the 2025 season, it’s just a question of where. Blair may have the highest ceiling of the bunch and will have to continue his ascension throughout fall camp.
What Is His Impact?
Whoever starts alongside Adon Shuler remains to be one of the bigger questions heading into fall camp. Many questions for this Notre Dame team get overshadowed by the quarterback battle, but I’d argue the battle for the pecking order at the safety position is up near the top. Blair is right in the middle of the mix. We’ve seen countless freshman in previous seasons make impacts in the secondary: Hamilton in 2019, Benjamin Morrison in 2022, Christian Gray in 2023, Leonard Moore in 2024 and Shuler as redshirt freshman last season.
Blair has the opportunity in front of him to solidify himself within the safety rotation early in fall camp. His skillset, range, size and athleticism makes him a matchup nightmare for opposing offenses and it wouldn’t surprise me if we saw him on the field in their first two games of the season. It may be a stretch for him to crack the starting lineup early in the season, but he has the ability to do so. Blair’s potential, athletic ability and size is what makes him my No. 38 most impactful player for Notre Dame in 2025.
PAST TOP 50 BREAKDOWNS
No. 39 – Karson Hobbs
No. 40 – Kevin Bauman
No. 41 – Ty Washington
No. 42 – Jack Larsen
No. 43 – Cole Mullins
No. 44 – Preston Zinter
No. 45 – James Flanigan
No. 46 – Noah Burnette
No. 47 – Guerby Lambert
No. 48 – Sullivan Absher
No. 49 – Jordan Botelho
No. 50 – Charles Jagusah
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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 24, 2025, where it first appeared.