Player Development Was A Key Reason Chicago Pass Rusher Christopher Burgess Picked Notre Dame

Notre Dame landed a massive recruiting victory during the 2024 All-American Bowl when priority 2025 defensive end Christopher Burgess pledged to the Irish. Burgess is an extremely gifted defensive end out of Chicago (Ill.) Simeon.

The 6-4, 240-pound defensive end is incredibly gifted physically. It doesn’t take a scout to watch Burgess’ film to see how impressive of an athlete he is. Add in the fact he is from Chicago, it just adds to how big of a recruiting win this was.

Arguably the best part of Burgess, however, is that he isn’t near his ceiling. He could end up being a superstar if he is developed properly. That development is something that Burgess wanted to find, which he believes Marcus Freeman and the other coaches. can provide.

"I want to play at the highest level,” Burgess told Irish Breakdown. "I don't know what defensive player doesn’t want to play for a coach that has the resume. I want to play for a coach that has a perfect or good defensive resume. He's known for having a good defense, whatever team he goes to. That played a big factor in me picking Notre Dame.”

That includes working one-on-one with Al Washington, who is developing a nice track record of development after the 2023 Irish line played so well. Burgess is excited to be added to that list in the future.

"I think Coach Washington is an amazing coach,” he explained. "I said this like a year ago that he was my favorite defensive line coach that's been recruiting me. I just wanted to speak that into existence. He's developing these players. Players like Isaiah Foskey, Javonte Jean-Baptiste, he's developing these players on the defensive line. That's who I want to play for. It's very important.”

If you watch Simeon play over the last couple of years, Burgess has been used at multiple alignments. That experience has given the Chicago native some confidence over his projection, with the versatility to do a lot for the Irish defense.

"I think I’m an all around defensive player,” said Burgess. "The last two years, I was playing three technique, just defensive tackle at 230 pounds. My main position is on the edge, but I believe I can play any position on the defensive mine.”

Burgess is already well thought of from a recruiting ranking perspective. He ranks highest on the Rivals ranking, currently sitting as the No. 61 overall player and No. 6 EDGE in the 2025 recruiting class. That ranking matches Burgess’ final schools, which included the Irish, Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama and LSU.

When Burgess isn’t making commitments at all star games, he is busy working on his craft. He is excited to see just how good he can be.

"My development has been increasing a lot,” Burgess explained. "Each day I'm working on something new. Each year I'm doing better at something. I'm staying consistent with it. I'm staying consistent with developing. My stock is rising just because I'm training every day. I'm going to develop something new every day. My legs, explosiveness, my hips, core, I'm going to develop at something.

"I feel like my development at defensive line is going to increase a lot playing for Notre Dame,” he continued. "I've been playing the strong side, the three technique, for a long time now. So I believe if I play for Notre Dame, it's going to increase, go up quickly. My stock is going to rise playing in their defense. They have an NFL style defense, so I believe I'm going to thrive in it.”

Burgess was a massive commitment for Notre Dame for a long list of reasons. One of the biggest, we have just barely seen how good he can be.

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Irish Breakdown Content

2023 Scholarship Chart
2023 Football Schedule

Notre Dame 2024 Scholarship Offers

2024 Commit Rankings - Offense
2024 Commit Rankings - Defense

2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Offense
2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Defense

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