Longhorns in the NFL Draft over the last five years

The NFL Draft begins this Thursday and while D’onta Foreman is likely assured of being selected in the 2nd or 3rd round, the rest of the draft eligible Longhorns will probably be hoping for undrafted free agent contracts. Kent Perkins could sneak into the late rounds.

If one Longhorn is selected in 2017, that will match 2016’s total (1). Hey, at least it dwarfs 2014 (0).

If it’s in any way debatable that Texas has had a talent problem in all aspects - recruitment, retention and program development - on-field results and the NFL Draft offer the final word.

Here’s a snapshot of the four years prior:

2016 (1)

Hassan Ridgeway DT

2015 (5)

Malcom Brown

Jordan Hicks

Mykkele Thompson

Quandre Diggs

Geoff Swaim

2014 (0)

2013 (3)

Kenny Vaccaro

Marquise Goodwin

Alex Okafor

**

If Foreman is the only 2017 Horn selected, that means Texas will have had 10 players drafted in the last 5 years.

By way of comparison, noted football factory North Carolina had 10 players selected in just 2013/2014.

West Virginia - which has been ranked between 27th to 50th nationally in recruiting for the last decade - will have had 17 players drafted over the last five years when this current draft concludes.

It hasn’t ever been so, of course.

Between 2006-2010, Texas had 28 players drafted. That draft glut coinciding with one of the best five year runs in Texas football history? Not a coincidence.

Don’t despair. It’s about to look a lot more like 2006-2010 around here very soon.