Why Texas football enters Arch Manning era with lofty expectations
Cedric Golden and Houston Chronicle columnist Kirk Bohls discuss the end of the Texas season and quarterback Arch Manning taking over behind center.
Texas football’s record of 11 players at the 2024 NFL Combine didn’t even last one year. There will be 14 Longhorns at the upcoming 2025 NFL combine, another impressive developmental win for coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff.
There were 329 college players invited to this year’s workout, which will be held from Feb. 27 to March 2 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Each invitee will be tested physically through workouts and mentally with interviews from multiple teams.
Every Texas-ex who attended last year’s event was drafted to a professional team. The current record for most players drafted from a single college was set after 15 Georgia players were taken in the 2022 NFL draft.
A special NFL committee decides who gets the opportunity to come to the combine, with all 32 teams providing input on draft-eligible players. That information is used by the NFL’s player selection committee to pick the combine participants. All eligible players are reviewed and voted on by the committee members, with invitations extended to the athletes receiving the necessary number of votes.
Here’s a look at every Texas player that will be attending the NFL combine.
From a 2022 game against ULM to the College Football Playoff semifinals, Quinn Ewers started 36 times for Texas and threw 1,135 passes. Over three years, Ewers passed for 9,128 yards and 68 touchdowns. Both of those numbers rank third in the Texas record books.
Kelvin Banks Jr., the unanimous first-team All-American, was the best left tackle in the country this past year. He is expected to be the first Longhorn at his position to go in the first round since Mike Williams went with the second overall pick to Buffalo in 2002.
After starting two years as a nickelback, Jahdae Barron moved outside to cornerback this past season and helped turn the Texas secondary into one of the best in the nation. In the process, he showed NFL scouts he has the size, talent and ball skills to thrive as a true corner.
Jaydon Blue raced 77 yards in the fourth quarter of the first round of the CFP against Clemson, showing a game-breaking ability that could help his draft stock. The Texan scored four touchdowns in three games of the CFP, including both touchdowns in the semifinal against Ohio State.
There are few players more electrifying than Isaiah Bond with the ball in his hands in the open field. Texas has struggled to get him in those positions in 2024 — especially late in the season — and Bond has battled injury issues that limited his production.
He sat behind NFL talent on Texas’ roster last season but in 2024, Gunnar Helm emerged as one of Ewers’ top targets. The Colorado native rewrote the school’s record books for his position by grabbing 60 passes for 786 yards and seven touchdowns.
Matthew Golden’s fourth-and-13 catch for a 28-yard touchdown to keep overtime going will go down as one of the most clutch plays in UT history. His performance this season has him in Mel Kiper’s top-10 available wide receivers for the NFL draft.
Cam Williams is a former three-star recruit from the Longhorns‘ 2022 recruiting class. After developing under offensive line coach Kyle Flood he started 15 games in 2024, showing tantalizing potential along with obvious inexperience.
Alfred Collins enters the 2025 NFL draft as an interesting prospect for pro organizations to evaluate, coming off a breakout final season in Austin. Collins was tasked with helping replace two Texas defensive tackles drafted in 2024, and did so admirably.
Barryn Sorrell’s lack of eye-popping athleticism belies a mature game that is a necessary staple for any good football team. His tackle-for-loss and sack numbers are modest, yet Sorrell does the little things on the defensive line that are required and not recorded.
Texas’ leader in the career starts, Jake Majors is a slightly undersized center with plenty of college experience. One of the leaders in the Longhorns’ locker room, he will have maturity beyond his years as an NFL rookie.
While Vernon Broughton hasn’t had the most productive career in terms of stats, there’s no denying the size and skill he carries with him to the next level. His athleticism combined with his interior-lineman size could make him a valuable pick for a team looking to shore up its defensive line.
Andrew Mukuba plays with a ferocity that belies his size. Despite being the smallest player in the Texas secondary, he acted as an enforcer for the unit.
Hayden Connor
Hayden Conner played four years on Texas’ offensive line. While he was never a star player, the guard was a solid piece on the Longhorns’ stalwart offensive line.
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This content is reposted from the source: https://www.statesman.com/story/sports/college/longhorns/football/2025/02/13/texas-football-2025-nfl-combine-quinn-ewers-draft/78545825007/
