Within 48 hours this month, two different NFL groups landed on the same answer: Kyle Hamilton is the best safety in football.
ESPN’s survey of more than 70 league executives, coaches, and scouts put Hamilton at No. 1 on July 16. Two days later, an eight-member Associated Press panel of Pro Football Writers followed suit, giving him six of eight first-place votes. When that kind of agreement shows up from two completely different voting pools, there’s not much left to debate.
What makes it even more striking is how few people saw this coming when Hamilton was still in high school.
He eventually finished as a unanimous five-star recruit, the No. 1 safety, and No. 15 overall prospect in the 2019 class according to 247Sports, choosing Notre Dame over Georgia, Clemson, Michigan, and Ohio State. But before his senior season at Marist High School, he was viewed much differently. At one point, Hamilton was Notre Dame’s lowest rated recruit in its entire class.
The skepticism didn’t last long once he got on the field.
Hamilton won a starting job as a true freshman and never gave it back, closing that first season with 41 tackles and four interceptions. Over 31 college games, he piled up 138 tackles, eight interceptions, 16 passes defended, and 7.5 tackles for loss. His junior season was shortened to seven games by a knee injury, but he still finished as an FWAA All-American.
By the time he left South Bend, quarterbacks had to locate him before every snap. That kind of attention followed him into the NFL, where the same pattern of being undervalued showed up again.
Even opponents were saying it out loud. Before Notre Dame’s Rose Bowl matchup with Alabama in the 2020 CFP, then-Alabama quarterback Mac Jones said Hamilton was “almost like an Ed Reed-type person where you have to find him every play.”
That reputation only grew after Baltimore grabbed him with the 14th pick in the 2022 draft, even though he had been projected as a top-10 selection. The Ravens got the kind of draft-day bargain front offices dream about, and Hamilton has rewarded them ever since.
He has made three straight Pro Bowls and earned All-Pro honors in each of his last three seasons, landing on the first team in 2022 and 2024 and the second team in 2023. Last season, he posted 105 tackles, a sack, nine passes defended, and two forced fumbles in 16 games. Baltimore then made him the highest-paid safety in the league last August with a four-year, $104 million extension that includes roughly $82 million guaranteed and runs through 2030.
The numbers behind his impact are hard to ignore. In 2024, opposing quarterbacks posted a 49.0 QBR with Hamilton on the field. When he was off it, that number jumped to 90.0.
That kind of influence is why he keeps showing up at the top of these rankings. In 2024, Hamilton played 355 snaps in the box, 298 in the slot, 164 on the defensive line, 162 at free safety, and 24 at outside corner.
One anonymous AFC offensive coach told ESPN, “His size and physicality stand out. He’s that big-bodied DB who can play nickel or safety that teams are looking for,” and added that his run defense and blitzing “make him somebody you really have to account for in game planning.”
The Ravens see it the same way. Defensive coordinator Zach Orr said, “He is an offense’s No. 1 target.
That’s who they’re worried about.” Assistant head coach and secondary coach Chuck Pagano called him “the unicorn.”
Hamilton’s own approach stays simple. “I keep everything independent to what my job is on a specific play,” he said.
For Notre Dame, he’s now the model every safety recruit gets shown: the player the national rankings missed, then the player the NFL eventually crowned. That’s the standard he leaves behind in South Bend.
In Other News...
Notre Dame Freshman Five Star Is Pushing Into A Bigger Role
Grayson McKeogh arrived at Notre Dame with the kind of recruiting profile that naturally draws attention, and the early returns in South Bend have only added to the buzz. The Pennsylvania native enrolled early and used spring practices to show why the Irish were so interested, giving the coaching staff a young offensive tackle with real upside and a head start on the learning curve.
Now the challenge shifts from flashing potential to winning trust in a room that always demands depth. McKeogh is expected to spend the rest of camp and into the season pushing for a place on the offensive line two-deep, and if his spring momentum carries over, Notre Dame could find itself with another freshman making a legitimate case for early playing time. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Faces A Nervy Finish For One Of Its Last Elite Targets
The race for Brayden Parks has come down to a familiar kind of summer recruiting stress for Notre Dame, with one of its last elite 2027 targets nearing a decision. The four-star defensive lineman is set to announce his college commitment on July 23, and after a wider early chase that included Illinois and Iowa, the picture has narrowed to Oregon and the Irish.
For Notre Dame, the timing matters because Parks is one of the higher-end defensive line prizes still on the board in this class, and the Irish are trying to keep pace with a Ducks recruiting push that has already made noise in the Big Ten. Oregon is also working to add linebacker Brayton Feister and continues to chase possible flips such as USC cornerback commit Danny Lang, which only adds to the pressure as Parks decision day approaches. [Read more 🡒]
Marcus Freeman Just Turned Notre Dame Media Week Into A Pressure Test
Marcus Freeman and CJ Carr spent a good chunk of Notre Dame media week in New York City, turning a routine preseason stop into something closer to a national showcase. Between ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange and making the rounds on television, the coach and quarterback kept steering the conversation back to what comes next for a program still carrying the sting of last seasons College Football Playoff miss. The message was clear enough: the Irish are not treating this fall like a victory lap, and the calendar already has a few dates circled.
Freeman also used the spotlight to talk about the broader shape of the program, from recruiting momentum to the challenge of keeping the standard high once the season starts. Carr, meanwhile, kept the focus on team goals even as his own profile rises, and the two of them made sure to point out the kind of games that can define a season before October arrives. For a coach whose name keeps surfacing in NFL conversations, the week was as much about reinforcing Notre Dames direction as it was about selling it. [Read more 🡒]