Notre Dame Impact Players For 2025: No. 29 Defensive Tackle Armel Mukam

Notre Dame is now 29 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. 29 most impactful player, defensive tackle Armel Mukam.

The defensive tackle rotation has been a hot topic of conversation this offseason after the departure of All-Americans Rylie Mills and Howard Cross III. There's a significant loss in production and experience, but the returning room is in a great spot to breakout in 2025. Mukam is in a prime spot to solidify himself within the defensive tackle rotation with a strong performance fall camp. He has all the physical tools to be an impact player with this unit; Mukam will have to go and capitalize on the opportunity in front of him.

What He Brings To The Table

Last season, Mukam was one of their few interior defensive lineman who weighed in over 300 pounds. Now, that's more of a common theme, but looking at him in person, the 6-3 305 pound Canada native is still one of the biggest players in the room. He has tremendous size but that does not hinder his athletic ability. Mukam has a very twitchy first step and a strong punch at the point of contact. Fall camp started on Thursday and he was one of the stronger players rotating through drills like the sled.

His lack of experience is the only blemish on his resume heading into this season. Mukam appeared in six games last season and didn't play from the USC game to the Ohio State game in the National Championship. He logged 60 snaps, three total pressures and four tackles last season. Defensive line coach Al Washington has been pleased with his progress so far in the offseason. If Mukam is able to build off of his spring and summer workouts and continue his ascension throughout fall camp, he will have the opportunity to insert himself well into the rotation at defensive tackle.

What Is His Impact?

Depth was a major issue last season for the interior defensive lineman. Numbers began to run thin as the injuries began to pile up. At the bare minimum, Mukam provides so much needed depth to the room, but his ceiling could take him so much higher. As of right now, there's four interior guys who will absolutely be in the rotation this fall: Gabriel Rubio, Jason Onye, Jared Dawson and Donovan Hinish. Past those four, it's up for debate who else will be in the mix. The 6-3 305 pounder will have all the opportunities in the world this fall camp to insert his name in that mix.

There have been people around the program who believe Mukam has one of the highest ceilings in the defensive line room as a whole, not just amongst the interior guys. As we saw last season, injuries will happen and players like Mukam will have to be ready when their number is called. However, his size, athletic ability and overall ceiling is what makes me confident in saying he'll crack the defensive tackle rotation this fall camp and be an integral part of Washington's group this season. It's also why I have him as my No. 29 overall impact player for Notre Dame in 2025.

PAST TOP 50 BREAKDOWNS

No. 30 - Will Pauling
No. 31 - Jaylen Sneed
No. 32 - Luke Talich
No. 33 - Jalen Stroman
No. 34 - Micah Gilbert
No. 35 - Loghan Thomas
No. 36 - Cam Williams
No. 37 - Tae Johnson
No. 38 - JaDon Blair
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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