Jake Tafelski had just dropped off a few family members near Comerica Park for the Detroit Tigers’ home opener in 2024 when his phone rang from a number he didn’t recognize.
Tafelski played four years of football at Central Michigan as a backup running back and special teams standout and entered the portal as a graduate transfer that spring hoping to prolong his playing career.
Michigan State had reached out a few hours earlier – then-coach Jonathan Smith still had openings on his roster a few months after he took the job – and Iowa State had expressed interest. But when Tafelski answered the phone and the caller identified himself as Notre Dame general manager Chad Bowden, Tafelski’s heart skipped a beat.
Growing up in Dearborn, Tafelski dreamed of playing for the Irish, where his father Tom’s cousin was a walk-on a few decades earlier and his grandfather, Bill, was an ardent supporter of the school.
Bowden told Tafelski they saw him as a big back and core special teams player, wanted to bring him to campus as a walk-on and asked if he would apply to the school that night.
Tafelski called his dad, a longtime NFL agent, as soon as he hung up the phone, then drove straight to his grandpa’s house to tell him the news.
“It was pretty insane just to get that call,” Tafelski recalled. “He’s like, ‘Yeah, man, we’d love to have you. We like your film.’ And I always tested well too, and they saw all my testing numbers and they knew I could be an asset and help out the team in any way I could.”
DAVE BIRKETT: Experience or upside? How NFL teams weigh merits of older draft picks
Two years after that phone call changed his life, Tafelski − who got his master’s from Notre Dame and was on the Irish team that lost to Ohio State in the national championship game to end the 2024 season − is hoping for another surprise call this week in the NFL draft.
He’s unlikely to be picked in any of the seven rounds after playing primarily on special teams in his two seasons at Notre Dame and battling injury much of last year, when he sat behind the draft’s top two running back prospects Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price.
But he’s one of a couple dozen local state of Michigan prospects who could interest teams as a priority free agent.
“I like to take things one day at a time and not speculate,” Tafelski said. “But at the end of the day I got a degree from Notre Dame and we’ll see what happens so I think I’m in a good spot right now. I got a lot of eyeballs on me so I guess we’ll see what happens.”
In years past, the Detroit Lions would have invited players like Tafelski to their facility for a local day workout before the draft.
Lions general manager Brad Holmes said the team did away with its local workout this year and rededicated that time to other areas of draft preparation. The team still brought a number of prospects in for local visits, including Florida defensive tackle Caleb Banks (Southfield), Cincinnati defensive lineman Jalen Hunt (Belleville) and Michigan teammates Derrick Moore, T.J. Guy and Jaishawn Barham.
Local visits do not count against top-30 pre-draft visits.
“We just made the decision really last summer to do away with the pro day,” Holmes said. “And we’ll see how it goes. If we feel like we missed something by not doing it, then we’ll look at it and adjust.”
Tafelski, who played last season around 218 pounds and could be a fullback in the NFL, did his part to get a shot at Notre Dame’s pro day in March.
With all 32 NFL teams in attendance to watch Love, Price and a handful of other prospects expected to get drafted this week, Tafelski registered a 41-inch vertical jump and caught every pass thrown his way in position drills.
His vertical jump would have been the second-best mark among running backs at the NFL scouting combine, behind Kentucky’s Seth McGowan.
Tafelski, who finished with one carry for 2 yards and one catch for 14 yards in his Notre Dame career, said he was fortunate to learn from Love and Price the past two seasons, and will be rooting for them in the draft.