Notre Dame football is a couple of weeks into fall camp, which means the 2026 college football season is inching closer and closer. 

Head coach Marcus Freeman and the Fighting Irish carry national title hopes into the year, and the Notre Dame offense has generated a ton of excitement in the fan base. This is a deep and talented offensive unit with the opportunity to be as good as we have seen in South Bend in quite some time. 

But as is the case for any team, there are positives, negatives, and remaining questions that need to be answered. Here is a breakdown of the good, the bad, and the concerns for the Notre Dame offense heading into the 2026 season.

The good

Quarterback CJ Carr returns

Anytime you have a returning starter at quarterback heading into a season, you feel good about your chances. That is especially true when Carr put together a really impressive redshirt freshman season a year ago, throwing for 2,741 yards and 24 touchdowns while completing over 66% of his passes and throwing just six interceptions. With Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price now off to the NFL, the odds are that Carr will be more heavily counted upon to lead this offensive unit earlier in drives, earlier in downs, and be the engine for this offense.

The 6-foot-2, 215-pound quarterback has gotten a lot of fanfare as a potential high-round draft pick in the 2027 NFL Draft, and the reason for that is based upon his natural arm talent and mental capacity. If Carr takes the next step, which most people believe he should, he has the opportunity to be one of the best quarterbacks we have seen in South Bend in a very long time. 

The floor that we saw from him last year gives you a good feeling that, at worst, this should be a quality quarterback.

Mike Denbrock enters year 3

Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock now heads into his third year since returning to the Notre Dame football program. From his time at Cincinnati, LSU, and with the Fighting Irish, he has engineered a ton of explosive offenses. When you have continuity in a system, that provides a floor and a ceiling to create big plays and score a ton of points.

There is no reason to believe this offense should not pick up where it left off a year ago, and if it does, they have a chance to be one of the best offenses in all of college football. Denbrock has shown that he understands how to maximize the talent around him, whether Notre Dame operates as more of a running football team or can spread things out as a higher-octane passing attack. 

That background gives me high expectations for this team to assimilate to the talent that it has.

Depth of skill talent

While there are some question marks in terms of who exactly will be the high-upside performers among the playmakers offensively, there are a lot of options to work with. At wide receiver, you know that Jordan Faison is going to be a tremendous football player for the Fighting Irish. 

Who will be the secondary pass catchers to count on? Can Jaden Greathouse stay healthy? Is the offseason hype for Mylan Graham real? Can Micah Gilbert take a huge step? Can Quincy Porter get healthy?

There are options on the table, which gives you great confidence that a couple of them will step forward. In years past, Notre Dame has had too little potential impact depth, giving the team a small margin for error. The Irish have a lot more talent to choose from this year, which provides a lot more confidence that some players will indeed step up. 

That includes at running back, where you have potentially five deep options led by junior Aneyas Williams. At tight end, you also have Cooper Flanagan, James Flanigan, and true freshman five-star Ian Premer. 

Talent is everywhere on this offense to flourish, but only time will tell who those guys are that will fully step up.

Top-shelf offensive line talent

While Notre Dame has been dealing with a couple of injuries this offseason on the offensive line, there is no questioning that the starters returning and the new players stepping in are incredibly talented. 

Redshirt freshman left tackle Will Black has the look of a future first-round pick, while Anthonie Knapp, a two-year starter at left tackle, moves into left guard and has the upside to be one of the absolute best at his position in the country. Guerby Lambert is flexing out from right guard to right tackle and is another player with the look of an early rounder, whether he decides to declare for the 2027 or 2028 NFL Draft.

Having that much talent really ups the upside of this group, and if offensive line coach Joe Rudolph can get the most out of them, this has a chance to be a potential Joe Moore Award-winning unit.

The bad and the concerns

Floor of the wide receiver room

As I mentioned above, there is a lot of talent in the wide receiver room, but there really is only one proven commodity coming back in Faison. 

If healthy, it is easy to buy into what Greathouse can be, but after being injured so much in 2025 and only playing a couple of games, it is hard to fully trust what we saw during that 2024 national title run. Graham has been the talk of the offseason. Porter is incredibly talented. Gilbert was a top-150 football player coming out of the 2024 recruiting class for a reason. 

But none of these players have been able to produce on the college level.

Until a couple of them break out, there is a question of what the floor of this wide receiver room is. You know that Faison is at least going to be a good weapon, if not a great weapon. But will others step up? 

That is a question until it no longer is.

Playable offensive line depth

With the injury to Matty Augustine this offseason, even though he will only be out for several weeks, that does thin out an offensive line unit. While talented, there is a question of how much playable depth exists in case another injury or two happens up front. 

Notre Dame is one offensive tackle injury away from potentially turning to a Styles Prescod or having to dip into younger guys like true freshman Grayson McKeogh. That is not a place you want to be.

There are also concerns with Ashton Craig, who has had issues staying healthy in the past. With such a limited sample size of healthy play over the last couple of years, it is hard to fully trust that Craig will be available for 12-plus games in 2026. 

The margin for error gets a lot smaller if there are a couple of injuries up front. Notre Dame has to hope it can kick the injury bug that has plagued the program the last couple of years.

Backup quarterback situation

It is hard to maintain a great backup quarterback situation in the modern world of college football, but Notre Dame is one potential CJ Carr injury away from disaster. 

Blake Hebert has talent, but the redshirt freshman has never thrown a pass on the college level. The same can be said about true freshman Noah Grubbs and Teddy Jarrard. No matter who becomes the backup, there is no proof of concept or track record that any of these options will be able to come into a game and potentially help you win.

The season truly does ride, and championship hopes truly do ride on Carr staying healthy. If he does, this should be a potential championship-winning team. 

But the lack of a proven backup was something Notre Dame searched for this offseason and unfortunately could not find the right fit. That does bring some concerns.

Pass-catching floor at tight end

Cooper Flanagan should be a really good player for Notre Dame in 2026 at tight end if he can stay healthy. James Flanigan has a ton of upside, and Premer has elite overall talent, but there is no proven commodity in that tight end room in terms of passing game upside. 

I believe that Premer can be that player, but with him not enrolling until the summer, it remains to be seen how much of a role he plays, especially early in the 2026 season.

Whether Cooper or James can pick up the slack that Eli Raridon left is going to be a question until it is no longer. All three of those players, including Ty Washington and Jack Larsen as depth pieces, are talented, but there are no proven results in that room of being legitimate difference makers as pass catchers, and almost no sample size of pass-catching production in general.