{"id":259422,"date":"2026-04-21T12:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/259422\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T12:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:04:11","slug":"5-texas-football-prospects-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/259422\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Texas football prospects to watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

By almost every projection,\u00a0Texas footbal<\/a>l won\u2019t see as many players picked in the 2026 NFL Draft as the past two years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year, draft estimates range from five to perhaps as many as eight Longhorns, depending on how the late rounds shake out. Seven\u00a0Texas football players\u00a0drew invitations<\/a>\u00a0to this year’s NFL scouting combine. That marked a drop from the past two seasons, when Texas had\u00a0a school-record 14 invitations<\/a>\u00a0to the 2025 combine and\u00a011 in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are five Longhorns to watch when the NFL draft begins Thursday at 7 p.m. with the start of the first round.<\/p>\n

Hill Jr.<\/a>, a three-year starter who left Texas after his junior season, currently\u00a0projects as a first- or second-round pick<\/a>\u00a0Friday by ESPN, and ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. ranks him as the third best off-ball linebacker in the draft. He will likely be the first Longhorn taken.<\/p>\n

Muhammad<\/a> is currently projected as the last pick in the second round to Super Bowl champion Seattle, according to\u00a0Kiper. Muhammad has been rising up the draft boards and will likely get picked Friday<\/p>\n

Another riser on the boards after adding postseason weight while retaining his speed, Endries<\/a> rates as the 117th overall prospect on ESPN\u2019s draft rankings and could go as early as Friday\u2019s third round to a team that needs a pass-catching tight end.<\/p>\n

Moore<\/a> enjoyed a strong showing during\u00a0Texas\u2019s pro day<\/a>, and his measurables make up for a lack of heavy production in two seasons at Texas. He\u2019s currently listed as the 150th best prospect by ESPN and could go early Saturday, which includes rounds 4-7.<\/p>\n

The 174th overall prospect on ESPN\u2019s latest rankings, Taaffe<\/a> could go as high as the fifth round Saturday because of his versatility and ability to contribute immediately on special teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By almost every projection,\u00a0Texas football won\u2019t see as many players picked in the 2026 NFL Draft as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21872,261,27,29,537,536,28],"class_list":["post-259422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-college-football","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-longhorns-football","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}