When a “huge” NIL offer lands on the table, most 22-year-olds get second thoughts but not Jadarian Price. What he did was feel grateful for the opportunity, call his mother, and say he was walking away from it. The Notre Dame RB announced in mid-December that he’s skipping his senior year and entering the 2026 NFL Draft. And while “a school” offered him a lot of money to stay in college, he unpacked the why of turning it down. 

“You know, keeping my head down and working and understanding that I’m gonna create generational wealth later down the line,” Jadarian Price said. “It’s not all about money right now. I wanted to make sure I had the tangibles to get into the league and make sure that I made real money and that’s going to carry me and help my family out.”

That’s not going to be a long shot for Jadarian Price who just wrapped up a Notre Dame career with 27 total TDs. He averaged a clean 6.0 yards per carry and totaled 1,692 rushing yards. His single-game high in carries last season was just 15 against NC State. In other words, he never got run into the ground nor demanded 25 touches. He accepted the support role behind Heisman finalist RB Jeremiyah Love, even when NFL evaluators were watching every rep and of course, teams questioned why he stayed in that role. 

“No, I never got close to leaving,” he confessed. “I maybe flirted with it a little bit, just for leverage, but let’s be honest, I wasn’t going to leave.”

It’s a bold admission on his side but the only hard point in his rejections is telling his mom he was turning down the money.

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“The only difficult thing was having to tell my mom that a school has offered me this amount of money and then telling her that I wasn’t going to do that,” he said. “That was hard. Money can be a big thing, but it’s not all. It isn’t everything. That’s what I truly believe.”

That mindset tracks when you look at what he actually did with his NIL earnings. Instead of flashing it online, Jadarian Price used his sponsorship money to shop at a Walmart in Mishawaka to buy Christmas gifts for three local kids through the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program. 

“I’m just a kid from a small town: Denison, Texas,” he said. “I didn’t come from much as a kid myself… It was truly a blessing to be able to be in this position to do that.”

The oldest of three, he worked as a fifth-grade teaching assistant back home and coaches youth athletes. Responsibility is one of his biggest strengths. And when he gets to the NFL, he’s destined for big money contracts. In ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr.’s latest mock draft, Jadarian Price is projected to go No. 28 overall to the Houston Texans. If you view the Spotrac projections, that slot carries an estimated four-year, $18.3 million rookie deal. That’s the reason he rejected guaranteed college NIL money. And he’s not the only Irish back fielding calls.

Jeremiyah Love also received strong NIL overtures despite being widely expected to return to Notre Dame. Still, teams were calling and offering and testing his loyalty. He never seriously considered leaving either. These choices bring us to something bigger than just one decision.

Jadarian Price and Jeremiyah Love set to break Notre Dame record

Unlike most teams where the QB is the engine, Notre Dame’s rise was powered by its two RBs. Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price combined to help the Irish rush for 38 TDs, fourth-most in the nation. The school ranked No. 8 nationally in PFSN’s CFB Offensive Impact Score largely because of that ground dominance.

In a recent seven-round 2026 NFL Mock Draft by PFSN’s Jacob Infante, both backs are top 50 projections. Jeremiyah Love is projected No. 8 overall to the Saints while Jadarian Price lands at No. 49 to the Vikings. The last time Notre Dame had two running backs drafted in the same class was in 1993 when Jerome Bettis and Reggie Brooks went in the first and second rounds.

Jadarian Price is betting on NFL value over portal leverage. And now the league is watching as draft stocks keep changing. The only question left is if he made the smartest business decision of the NIL era.