Former Notre Dame running back Audric Estimé is back on the open market after the New Orleans Saints waived him from injured reserve with an injury settlement Tuesday, via the NFL transaction wire.
The 23-year-old former Irish workhorse made New Orleans’ initial 53-man roster this summer after a strong camp, only to be sidelined by a thigh injury that landed him on IR Sept. 12, a day before the Saints’ opener.
An earlier ankle issue in the preseason opener against Jacksonville had already interrupted his momentum. With Alvin Kamara returning and other backs filling the depth chart, New Orleans chose to move on.
For Notre Dame fans who watched Estimé carry the load in 2023, the news is familiar NFL business — and still a little deflating.
In his junior season in South Bend, he started all 12 games, ran 210 times for 1,341 yards and a school-record 18 rushing touchdowns, earned Associated Press second-team All-America honors, and ranked among the nation’s top rushers.
Those between-the-tackles, pad-level runs that defined his Irish tenure were the same traits that helped him survive camp and crack New Orleans’ roster after bouncing from Denver (the team that drafted him in the fifth round in 2024) to Philadelphia’s practice squad and then the Saints in October 2025.
Last year, he appeared in seven games for New Orleans, rushing 46 times for 198 yards after injuries shredded the backfield.
He made the 53 this August because he ran hard when it counted. The thigh injury simply arrived at the wrong time.
An injury settlement lets Estimé rehab on his own and sign elsewhere once healthy.
He cannot return to the Saints until the agreed recovery window plus four additional weeks.
At 5-foot-11 and 227 pounds, he still fits the physical, short-yardage profile teams look for when a backfield thins out. Irish followers who remember his 100-yard games and late-season reliability know he has already proven he can produce when given a clean runway.
The path from Notre Dame to a lasting NFL role is rarely linear. Estimé has already been waived once by the team that drafted him and cut from a practice squad.
Making a 53-man roster and then leaving via settlement is another chapter in that grind.
Notre Dame fans will watch where he lands next — and hope the next opportunity lasts longer than a training-camp surge and a mid-September injury.
