Audric
Estime.
Audric
Estime.
Notre Dame· 5'11"· 221 lb· 4.71s 40
"Estimé is what happens when a 221-pound record-setting back runs 4.71: everyone agrees he can play, and nobody wants to spend more than a fifth-round pick to find out how much."Pre-draft read
Estimé was Notre Dame's downhill lead back, a 221-pound one-cut runner who takes the first crease he sees and dares the second level to bring him down. He presses the line square, keeps his pads under the tackler's chest, and generates most of his yardage after contact through leg drive and a genuinely punishing stiff arm.
The secondary trait is balance: he bounces off glancing hits and stays upright through arm tackles, which turns four-yard runs into eight. He is a heavy short-yardage and goal-line closer rather than a space creator, with limited lateral escape and only functional receiving value. The signature is finish, because he never runs out of bounds when he can run through someone.
Gap-and-duo power run game that gives him a defined crease and a lead blocker instead of asking him to create.
Year 1: short-yardage and goal-line closer sharing a backfield with a change-of-pace back. Ceiling: 200-carry early-down starter on a run-first team with a strong interior line.
A wide-zone offense that asks him to bounce runs to the perimeter and win with lateral stress and second-level speed.
His value is tied directly to blocking quality; behind a mediocre line his lack of creation shows up immediately.
Audric Estimé | Notre Dame Running Back | 2023 Junior Highlights
Full cutup of the 1,341-yard, 18-touchdown All-American season.
Audric Estimé 2023 Notre Dame Highlights
Contact balance, stiff arms and short-yardage finishes from his final college year.
Audric Estimé Week 17 Highlights | Every Run and Target vs Titans
His 94-yard breakout game for New Orleans late in the 2025 season.
A three-year Notre Dame back who grew from Kyren Williams' backup into the engine of the offense, Estimé is a classic power runner in a league that had drifted away from them. He is thick through the hips and chest, runs behind his pads, and is at his best on gap and duo concepts that give him a defined path and a body to run through.
The production is real. He averaged 5.9 yards per carry for 920 yards in 2022, then broke the program's single-season rushing touchdown record with 18 in 2023 while gaining 1,341 yards at 6.4 per carry as a second-team All-American. The flags are just as clear: he creates almost nothing when the design breaks down, his feet are heavy in tight spaces, and his 4.71 forty at the Combine confirmed what the tape suggested about the long speed. A 4.58 at his Pro Day steadied the fall without erasing it.
Boards had him as a Day 2 talent on production and a Day 3 fit on athletic profile, and the athletic profile won. Denver taking him in the fifth was a low-cost bet on power in a Sean Payton offense that wanted a closer behind a zone-heavy front.
- 01
Contact balance
Absorbs glancing hits without losing his base and routinely turns what should be a two-yard gain into a six-yard gain by staying upright.
- 02
Finishing power
At 221 pounds he seeks out contact at the second level, and defensive backs consistently fail to bring him down one on one.
- 03
Short-yardage reliability
A trusted goal-line and third-and-one option who set Notre Dame's single-season record with 18 rushing touchdowns in 2023.
- 04
Vision on gap concepts
Reads down blocks and pullers cleanly on duo and power, presses the correct gap and gets north without wasted steps.
- 05
Stiff arm
One of the better stiff arms in the class, and he uses it as an actual weapon to separate from arm tacklers in the open field.
- 01
Long speed
A 4.71 Combine forty showed up on tape as an inability to finish long runs, and NFL angles catch him once he clears the second level.
- 02
Lateral agility
Heavy feet in tight quarters mean he cannot make the first unblocked defender miss or bounce a clogged run outside.
- 03
Creation ability
When the blocking breaks down he takes what is there instead of manufacturing yardage, so his floor is tied to his offensive line.
- 04
Passing-game value
Limited route tree and modest pass-protection reps make him a two-down back who leaves the field on obvious throwing situations.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.71sp50
- Vertical
- 38inp50
- Broad jump
- 125inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 23repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Att | Yds | TD | Rec | RecYds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Notre Dame | 12 | 7 | 60 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Notre Dame | 13 | 156 | 920 | 11 | 9 | 135 |
| 2023 | Notre Dame | 12 | 210 | 1341 | 18 | 17 | 142 |
| Career | — | 37 | 373 | 2321 | 29 | 26 | 277 |
Seasons sum exactly to the career line (373 carries, 2,321 yards, 29 TD, 26 receptions, 277 yards), cross-checked against Notre Dame's official records. 2023 rushing touchdowns (18) are the program single-season record. Fumble totals not verified and omitted.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Productive, physical committee back who carries a defined short-yardage role.
Same build and finish, with the vision and receiving growth that turned him into a lead back.
Big, decorated college runner whose limited creation keeps him at the back of NFL depth charts.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Denver used him almost exactly as advertised as a rookie. Estimé played 13 games in 2024 behind Javonte Williams and Jaleel McLaughlin, carried 76 times for 310 yards and two touchdowns at 4.1 a pop, and looked like the short-yardage answer the roster lacked. Then the Broncos drafted RJ Harvey and signed veterans in 2025 and cut him at the end of the preseason. Philadelphia signed him to the practice squad, never elevated him, and released him in mid-October. New Orleans claimed the opening: he joined the Saints' practice squad in late October and, with Kendre Miller and others injured, became the primary back down the stretch, finishing 2025 with 46 carries for 198 yards, a touchdown and a 94-yard game against Tennessee.
In hindsight this is a reasonable fifth-round outcome that the speed testing predicted. He is a real NFL runner with a narrow lane, and the two years since the draft have been about finding a team that values that lane. Denver was not it; a Saints backfield that needs power might be.
Data note: Seasons sum exactly to the career line (373 carries, 2,321 yards, 29 TD, 26 receptions, 277 yards), cross-checked against Notre Dame's official records. 2023 rushing touchdowns (18) are the program single-season record. Fumble totals not verified and omitted.