Isaiah
Foskey.
Isaiah
Foskey.
Notre Dame· 6'5"· 264 lb· 4.58s 40
"Notre Dame's all-time sack leader arrived with an elite takeoff and a record book behind him, but the tape kept asking the question the NFL eventually answered: what happens when the speed rush gets cut off?"Pre-draft read
Foskey was Notre Dame's every-down left end, a 6-5, 264-pound rusher who won on length, timing and a genuinely elite get-off. His best rushes started with a flat first step that forced tackles to open early; from there he stacked a long-arm or a swipe-rip to flatten the corner. He converted speed to power well enough to walk blockers back on third down, and the same takeoff made him a punt-block weapon.
The secondary trait was effort more than counter craft: he chased plays down the line and finished from behind. Against the run he set a firm edge with heavy hands and long arms, though he played tall and could be reached. The athletic ceiling was real for the size — 4.58 at 264 pounds — and the signature was the takeoff, not a rush plan.
Even-front 4-3 as a base left defensive end; sub-package speed rusher who can reduce to a 4i on passing downs.
Year 1: rotational base end (25-35 snaps) and core special teamer while the counter package develops. Ceiling: 8-10 sack starting left end in a four-man front that lets him launch upfield on early downs.
Two-gap 3-4 defensive end asking him to hold blocks at the point on 1st and 2nd down, or an odd-front stand-up OLB role with heavy coverage drops he never rehearsed at Notre Dame.
Best value came in fronts that scheme him free with stunts and games rather than isolating him on an island against a top-tier left tackle.
Isaiah Foskey 2022 Notre Dame Highlights
Senior-year cutup: the get-off, the long-arm and the edge-setting reps that produced 10.5 sacks.
Isaiah Foskey breaks Justin Tuck's Notre Dame career sack record vs. Boston College
The record-breaking sack in November 2022 — pure speed-to-power off the left edge.
Isaiah Foskey gets drafted by the New Orleans Saints
Draft-night selection at No. 40 overall, with the pre-draft scouting framing of his profile.
A four-year Notre Dame defensive end who left South Bend as the program's all-time sack leader, Foskey was the rare edge who looked exactly like the position description: long, explosive off the ball, and comfortable playing 60 snaps with his hand in the dirt. He was a base left end in an even front who could reduce inside on passing downs, with a special-teams résumé most edge prospects never touch.
The production came in a two-year burst. After 4.5 sacks as a sophomore, he posted 11 sacks and 12.5 tackles for loss in 2021 and 10.5 sacks with 13.5 tackles for loss in 2022, earning consensus All-America honors as a senior and breaking Justin Tuck's school record. The flag was how those wins arrived: a lot of them came off pure takeoff, effort, or scheme, and the tape showed a rusher without a reliable inside counter when the first move died. Pad level was inconsistent, and tackles who beat him to the punch could stalemate him.
The board consensus had him as a late-first to early-second developmental starter — the traits and the record bought the grade, the rush plan capped it. New Orleans took him 40th overall betting that a rotational rookie season behind Cameron Jordan and Carl Granderson would buy the technical development the tape said he still needed.
- 01
Explosive first step
the takeoff is the calling card; tackles had to open their hips early or lose the edge outright against his flat, low launch.
- 02
Length and hand power
long arms let him long-arm and stack tackles, and he used that frame to set a firm edge and disengage against the run.
- 03
Special-teams weapon
blocked punts at Notre Dame off the same get-off, giving him a fourth-phase role that survives a slow start on defense.
- 04
Production and durability
41 career games with 26 regular-season sacks and 31 tackles for loss, breaking the Notre Dame career sack record.
- 05
Effort finisher
chased plays across the formation and closed from the back side, turning coverage sacks and clean-up tackles for loss into real numbers.
- 01
No true counter
when the speed rush was cut off, he lacked a dependable inside move and the pass rush stalled at the tackle's outside shoulder.
- 02
Plays tall
high pad level let quicker tackles reach and wall him off, and it cost him leverage on power rushes he otherwise had the mass to win.
- 03
Bend limitations
he flattens more than he corners, so he tended to run the arc wide instead of shortening the path to the quarterback.
- 04
Scheme-aided sacks
a share of his college pressure came from stunts, effort and coverage rather than beating a good tackle one-on-one.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.58sp50
- Vertical
- 34inp50
- Broad jump
- 125inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.28sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.41sp50
- Bench
- 22repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Notre Dame | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Notre Dame | 12 | 19 | 4.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | Notre Dame | 13 | 52 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2022 | Notre Dame | 12 | 44 | 10.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 41 | 120 | 26 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Regular-season totals per CFBD. Notre Dame officially credits him with 26.5 career sacks, the program record (previously Justin Tuck, 24.5). Forced fumbles not verified season by season and left null.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- 2022 Consensus All-American
- 2022 Walter Camp First-Team All-American
- Notre Dame career sacks record holder
- 2021 Phil Steele Third-Team All-American
Rotational length-and-effort edge who produces in flashes when the front is scheming him free rather than one-on-one.
Long, high-effort end who found a starting role once the counter package caught up to the length — the outcome the Saints imagined.
Traits pick on the same defensive line who never turned athletic profile into consistent pass-rush production.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Second-round edge who never won a defined NFL role: 0.5 career sacks in 35 games, waived by the Saints before his third season and fighting for a rotational spot in Cincinnati in 2026.
New Orleans got almost nothing from the pick. Foskey opened his rookie year buried behind Cameron Jordan, Carl Granderson and Payton Turner, played 10 games and finished with 10 tackles and half a sack. Year two brought availability but not production: 17 games, 16 tackles, zero sacks, a role that stayed mostly special teams. When the Saints reshuffled the front in 2025, he was waived on August 26 before final cuts — a second-round pick released at 24 with less than one career sack. Cincinnati signed him, reuniting him with Al Golden, his defensive coordinator during that 2021 Notre Dame breakout. He played eight games for Cincinnati in 2025 with four tackles, and entered 2026 camp fighting for the last edge spot.
In hindsight this is the classic case of drafting the record instead of the rush plan. The traits were real — the get-off, the length, the special-teams juice — but the pre-draft flag was precisely the one that decided his NFL career: no counter when the speed rush dies. At the college level his takeoff alone beat a lot of tackles; against NFL starters it bought a step and nothing else. New Orleans also never gave him a defined role. He remains young enough that a Golden reunion could still produce a useful rotational rusher, but a No. 40 pick is judged on starter snaps, and he has never had them.
Data note: Regular-season totals per CFBD. Notre Dame officially credits him with 26.5 career sacks, the program record (previously Justin Tuck, 24.5). Forced fumbles not verified season by season and left null.