2024 NFL Draft Prospects to Watch in the College Football Playoff
Top NFL prospects to watch in the College Football Playoff: Texas
Last but not least, the Texas Longhorns NFL prospects to watch in the College Football Playoff that starts on New Year's Day.
Texas' offense is anchored by a pair of very good wide receivers, starting with Xavier Worthy. Worthy stands 6'1", 172 pounds and brought in 73 catches for 969 yards (13.3 yards per reception) and five touchdowns. A cautionary tale with Worthy, even though he stands over six feet tall, Worthy had five drops this season and caught only 5-of-20 contested catch opportunities.
Across from Worthy is Adonai Mitchell. Mitchell has great NFL size at 6'4" and196 pounds. Mitchell brought in 51 receptions for 813 yards (15.9 yards per reception) and 10 touchdowns! Mitchell had just one drop and was slightly better than his teammate on contested catches at 3-of-9.
Adonai Mitchell was fantastic in the Longhorn's win in the Big 12 championship, bringing in six catches for 109 yards and a touchdown.
At the tight end position, the Longhorns have Ja'Tavion Sanders, who may be a bit undersized at 6'4", 243 pounds but was a good pass catcher in 2023. Sanders caught 39-of-59 targets for 607 yards and two touchdowns. Sanders was the best of the three pass catchers on this list at contested catches, bringing in 6-of-12. Sanders is just an OK blocker, so there is some work to do there as well.
Defensively for Texas, the man to watch is Jaylan Ford. The linebacker racked up 91 tackles, a sack, two passes defensed, two interceptions and had one fumble forced and recovered. Jaylen Ford isn't the best in coverage but does pretty well as a box defender. Ford is credited with 45 run stops in the 2023 season.
In 2022 Jaylan Ford had 119 tackles, two sacks, two passes defensed, four interceptions and two fumbles forced and recovered!
On the defensive line, the man in the middle is T'Vondre Sweat. Sweat is a 6'4", 362lb block eater ready to play nose tackle in a 3-4 defense right away. Sweat was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. Sweat racked up 28 pressures and 25 run stops in 2023, showing off versatility at a position that is tough to do so.