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    Jeff Howe
    The next step for the historic group of Longhorns who accounted for a school-record 12 picks in the 2024 NFL Draft is coming to terms on their rookie contracts.
    Six of the 12 rookies were signed, sealed and delivered to their respective franchises as of Sunday. Gunnar Helm was the most recent Texas draftee to sign, agreeing to terms with the Tennessee Titans, although the terms of the fourth-round pick’s (No. 120 overall) deal have yet to be made public.
    With that said, the following are the reported terms for which the other five former Longhorns have signed.
    Kelvin Banks Jr., New Orleans Saints (Round 1, No. 9 overall pick): Banks, Jahdae Barron and Matthew Golden stand to make more money than the reported figures if their fifth-year options are picked up. Banks signed a four-year deal with a signing bonus of more than $6.93 million, but the total value of his contract ($27.7 million) is fully guaranteed.
    Barryn Sorrell, Green Bay Packers (Round 4, No. 124 overall pick): Sorrell’s four-year, $5.14 million deal includes a signing bonus of $941,852. The signing bonus is the only portion of Sorrell’s contract guaranteed to be paid out.
    Jaydon Blue, Dallas Cowboys (Round 5, No. 149 overall pick): Blue’s deal is for four years with a total value of $4.63 million. His signing bonus ($427,068) is the only guaranteed portion of the contract.
    Hayden Conner, Arizona Cardinals (Round 6, No. 211 overall pick): Conner’s signing bonus ($174,280) is the only guaranteed money headed his way on the four-year, $4.37 million deal he signed.
    Quinn Ewers, Miami Dolphins (Round 7, No. 231 overall pick): Ewers signed a four-year deal worth $4.33 million. The only guaranteed money Ewers has coming to him is his signing bonus ($131,576).
    The five Texas products have signed NFL rookie contracts worth $46,206,022. Of that money, $27,406,022 is fully guaranteed, with $8,607,588 in signing bonuses.
    The projected contract values based on the rookie wage scale, which changes every year based on the salary cap increasing or decreasing, aren’t far off from the money for which the remaining draftees will sign. The biggest issues preventing rookie contracts from getting done include language (some teams will look to put various classes in the contract that protect them from shelling out money they don’t believe they should be on the hook for) and when certain portions of the guaranteed money will be paid out.
    According to Spotrac, the following dollar figures are the total value of the contracts that the seven (including Helm) remaining Longhorns are projected to earn:
    Jahdae Barron, Denver Broncos (Round 1, No. 20 overall pick): $18,048,198
    Matthew Golden, Green Bay Packers (Round 1, No. 23 overall pick): $17,551,274
    Alfred Collins, San Francisco 49ers (Round 2, No. 43 overall pick): $10,296,326
    Andrew Mukuba Philadelphia Eagles (Round 2, No. 64 overall pick): $7,155,826
    Vernon Broughton, New Orleans Saints (Round 3, No. 71 overall pick): $6,634,052
    Gunnar Helm, Tennessee Titans (Round 4, No. 120 overall pick): $5,171,100
    Cameron Williams, Philadelphia Eagles (Round 6, No. 207 overall pick): $4,401,198
    When the remaining unsigned contracts are official, the Texas draft class will be worth an estimated $115,463,996.
    Jeff Howe
    Barryn Sorrell’s mind was grasping how close Texas had come to a berth in the College Football Playoff National Championship while simultaneously processing the end of his Longhorn career when he reflected on the four seasons he spent in burnt orange.
    Experiencing a whirlwind of emotions after the 2024 season ended with a heartbreaking 28-14 Cotton Bowl loss to Ohio State, Sorrell’s response to a loaded question — if coming to Texas was everything he thought it would be — was detailed and purposeful. It appropriately summed up the four-year odyssey of the Longhorns’ recruiting class from the 2021 cycle.
    “It's just been a journey,” Sorrell said from within the bowels of AT&T Stadium. "There's so many great memories that I'll always have and I'm thankful for it. I'm just so blessed and happy to realize that walking away from this, I'm leaving it better than I found it.”
    Along with helping Texas improve from a 5-7 record in Steve Sarkisian’s first season to a team that won at a championship-caliber clip, including a Big 12 title, a berth in the SEC Championship and consecutive trips to the CFP semifinals, Sorrell was one of seven draft picks to emerge from a transition class.
    Of the 22 signees in the cycle, 20 committed to former coach Tom Herman’s staff. Sorrell was among the 19 recruits who signed with Texas before Herman was fired and replaced by Sarkisian on Jan. 2, 2021.
    Unlike his predecessors, Sarkisian didn’t go scorched earth when assessing what he inherited from the previous regime. Sarkisian’s organization carefully examined the cupboard, eventually learning the Longhorns had a group of newcomers long on football character and strong developmental traits.
    Sorrell was among the young Texas players who bought into Sarkisian’s vision from the jump, which laid the foundation of the juggernaut the current regime has built.
    “We got along from Day 1,” Sorrell said of his relationship with Sarkisian. “He wanted to win. I'd seen that from the first meeting. Throughout the first year, hearing what he was saying and guys not really picking it up, I wanted to put those things in place. I feel like that’s what I’ve done and that’s what we’ve done and it’s why we are where we are.”
    One of the first declarations Sarkisian made in his introductory press conference was that he wanted to oversee a program capable of developing talent at an elite level. Xavier Worthy is the first recruit Sarkisian plucked from the high school ranks who went on to become an NFL draft pick.
    With that said, the Longhorns won 25 games over the last two seasons because the Sarkisian regime did a magnificent job developing the players they inherited.
    A fourth-round selection by the Green Bay Packers in last month’s draft, Sorrell’s recruiting class features two first-rounders (Worthy and Byron Murphy II), one second-round pick (Jonathon Brooks), three fourth-rounders (Sorrell, Ja’Tavion Sanders and Gunnar Helm) and one player drafted in the sixth round (Hayden Conner). While Worthy and Sanders were regarded as top-100 prospects by the recruiting industry, the same can’t be said for the rest of the class: Brooks and Murphy were unranked four-star prospects in the 247Sports Composite, and Conner snuck into the top 300 of the On3 Industry rankings, but 247Sports and On3 had Helm and Sorrell among the five lowest-rated non-specialists in the class.
    Along with the seven draft picks, two 2021 signees (Morice Blackwell Jr. and Juan Davis) completed their eligibility at Texas without entering the NCAA transfer portal. Charles Wright and Max Merril stayed in the program for multiple seasons and Casey Cain was a contributor on offense before transferring to UNLV.
    Sarkisian and company just assembled the No. 1 recruiting class in the country in the 2025 cycle, the most recent roster additions poised to help the Longhorns remain championship contenders for the foreseeable future. Texas will continue to recruit at an elite level and has a lot of unfinished business under Sarkisian, meaning the accomplishments of the 2021 class could eventually pale in comparison to future hauls.
    Nevertheless, there might not be a recruiting class more important to Sarkisian’s recent and future success than the group that’s been there every step of the way.
    “I came here and the culture was different,” said Sorrell, who added that there were “a lot of ups and downs” throughout his four seasons in the program. “I just focused on, 'How can I get better? How can I impact this team?' I feel like I've done that at a good level to get us to this point. Now, it's [time] for the guys behind me to take my lessons and things that I tried to teach the guys in my room and throughout this team, and, hopefully, they can exceed the standard that we set.”
    Jeff Howe
    Arch Manning wasn’t among the 13 quarterbacks selected in the 2025 NFL Draft. Nevertheless, the rising redshirt sophomore poised to lead a Texas team with national championship aspirations was mentioned as much as the baker’s dozen who were picked over the draft’s seven rounds, as the potential No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 draft.
    Monday’s Touchdown Club of Houston luncheon wasn’t the first time Steve Sarkisian has been asked about Manning’s future on the Forty Acres. Still, the question wasn’t about Manning handling being the Longhorns’ backup quarterback.
    Instead, Sarkisian was asked during a fan Q&A at the Bayou City Event Center if he had “a sense whether” Manning would be at Texas one year or two years, since he’s eligible to enter next year’s draft.
    “Here’s what I hope,” Sarkisian said as nervous laughter broke out throughout the room. “I hope he's got a really hard decision to make on — about Jan. 21. That means he played a long time, that means he probably had a really good season, and that means that he's trying to figure out, 'Do I want one more year in the burnt orange? Or is it time to go to the NFL?'
    “I hope it's a really, really hard decision,” he added. “I hope it's not a no-brainer to come back to school.”
    The discussion of Manning becoming the third No. 1 overall pick in his family (Peyton Manning in 1998 and Eli Manning in 2004) after one season as QB1 for the Longhorns is acceptable post-spring practice fodder. Any prolonged draft speculation falls somewhere on a relevance spectrum between writers, reporters, and publishers openly pining for Manning to be the quarterback of the future for the team they cover and content mills farming for clicks.
    The expectation has long been for Manning to spend at least two seasons at the wheel of Sarkisian’s offense. Regardless, it would be a surprise if Sarkisian isn’t asked about the length of Manning’s stay in Austin several times before Texas opens the 2025 season on the road in a Cotton Bowl rematch with reigning national champion Ohio State on Aug. 30.
    Longhorn fans are fortunate to follow a football program covered by media outlets (OTF among them) wise enough to avoid giving in to the temptation to drive pointless narratives involving the 6-foot-4-inch, 222-pound quarterback with the potential to help Texas secure the program’s first national title since 2005. The same goes for ESPN’s Matt Miller and NFL.com's Lance Zierlein, who did their respective parts to stamp out the idea that Manning is destined to headline the 2026 draft.
    “I won’t be doing any draft work on Arch for 2026,” Miller wrote. “He’s probably a 2027 player. He could be a 2028 player.”
    Zierlein pointed out two notable facts: Peyton and Eli Manning "both played four years of college ball,” he wrote, and Arch Manning has the earning potential through NIL deals to put off the NFL until he and his family decide it's time to go.
    “Why do people think Arch is going to be in the 2026 draft?” he wrote.
    The circus might slow down, but it won’t stop. For Texas fans already tired of opposing fans and the football media anxiously awaiting Manning’s departure, heeding Sarkisian’s advice should help maintain everyone’s sanity and enjoy what could be an unprecedented era of Longhorn football.
    “Let’s let this guy go play this year,” Sarkisian said. “Let's let him have fun, finally getting his opportunity to be the starting quarterback for the Texas Longhorns. It's been a lifelong dream for this guy to do this.
    “It's finally his time,” he added. “I hope he can just have an opportunity to enjoy it and enjoy it the right way because, like a lot of guys from our team, he's been dreaming about this his whole life, and now he gets an opportunity to go do it.
    “I just want to make sure that we all support him in this journey.”
    Bobby Burton
    Steve Sarkisian recap of NFL Draft:
     “There’s nothing like seeing our players achieve their lifelong dreams of being drafted to the NFL, and that goes for the ones that will sign as free agents, too. When you look at last year’s draft with a school-record 11 guys, and this year breaking that with 12, that’s 23 players in two years drafted off a team that in year one (in 2021) we didn’t have any. That says a lot about the work these guys have poured into building our program and the trajectory of where we’re headed because of these guys. This group of guys went to back-to-back college football playoff semifinals, led us to top-five rankings the last two years, won the Big 12, were in the SEC Championship game in overtime – things that hadn’t been done at Texas for a long time. They set a standard and there’s a lot of be proud of with this group because of what they’ve meant to our program. To think, when we got here there were 32 players total from Texas on rosters in the NFL and when you add this group in, we’ve nearly equaled that number in the last three drafts (28) – 23 in the last two alone – which is pretty incredible. I couldn’t be prouder of every one of these guys and the future they have ahead of them. It’s not really when you get drafted, it’s what you do with the opportunity, and I’m confident all these guys – along with the ones signing as free agents –understand that and will maximize the opportunity in front of them.”
     “These guys are one of the groups that helped change the culture of our program. We were excited to see their names called on draft day, but more importantly, want to let the teams that picked them know that they’ll not only give it their all on the field, but be great teammates, tremendous representatives of their franchises and outstanding members of the community. We are incredibly proud of each and every one of them and so happy for them and their families.”
     “They really put in the work, bought in, committed to being great, and it says a lot about our staff and all they poured into them, as well. Their explosiveness and power, football IQ, ability to do a great job interviewing with teams, the way they conduct themselves, those are all things we take great pride in here, and these guys are a great reflection of that. It’s a great moment for them and their families, but it’s also definitely motivating for the guys that are on our roster now. The message to them is if you follow the recipe for success here and focus on team success, the individual accolades, awards and honors will come. We’ve got a hungry group that wants to help the team be successful. It’s a roster full of ‘want to’ guys and not ‘have to’ guys, and I credit a lot of the players before them for creating that ‘want to’ mentality that our team has right now.”
    Jeff Howe
    Strong leadership helped guide Texas into the College Football Playoff semifinals the last two seasons. Along with the talent Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns have lost, quality leaders from the 2023 and 2024 rosters have departed the Forty Acres.
    A new leadership nucleus is forming during spring practice. Based on the early returns and what Sarkisian, Arch Manning and Quintrevion Wisner have said in their recent post-practice press scrums, the current Texas squad oozes intensity and swagger, which are rubbing off of a robust group of new faces in the locker room.
    “We come with just a tad bit more juice. Just a tad,” Wisner said on Thursday. “No offense to older guys, but the younger guys, we definitely have more energy.
    “We've got a bunch of freshmen new to the playing lifestyle,” he added. “For them to come in and match our energy and juice is good.”
    With Manning, Wisner and DJ Campbell setting the tone on offense, and Anthony Hill, Colin Simmons and Michael Taaffe leading the defense, these leaders have what it takes to end the program’s 20-year national championship drought.
    That’s saying a lot. It’s an incredibly high bar to clear.
    Nevertheless, these Longhorns give off vibes similar to the 2008 team, one that was more than deserving of a chance to play for the national title.
    Quan Cosby, Colt McCoy, Roy Miller and Brian Orakpo led a club that was arguably college football’s best. The young, inexperienced members of the roster — Sam Acho, Keenan Robinson, Earl Thomas and Fozzy Whittaker among them — got in line, helping Texas win 25 of 27 games over two seasons, including the program’s most recent conference championship before the Longhorns won the Big 12 on their way out of the league in 2023.
    Sarkisian now knows the quality depth it takes to play upwards of 17 games to be the last team standing when the curtain falls on the CFP at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium on Jan. 19, 2026. That’s why the positive early returns on the likes of James Simon, the young wide receivers (Parker Livingstone and four newcomers: Jaime Ffrench, Kaliq Lockett and Daylan McCutcheon and Michael Terry III), Brandon Baker, Nick Brooks, Nate Kibble, Graceson Littleton, Kade Phillips and Santana Wilson are significant developments to monitor as the overall outlook on depth clears up.
    “This is the most young players we've ever had at one time in spring practice,” Sarkisian said during his press conference on Tuesday. “It's been a little bit different for us.”
    According to ESPN.com’s Bill Connelly, Texas enters Sarkisian’s fifth season ranked No. 103 nationally in returning production. Of the 136 FBS programs, the Longhorns are 126th in returning offensive production.
    Still, that shouldn’t keep the Longhorns from competing for the SEC title and getting over the CFP semifinal hump.
    For starters, what Texas lacks in experience it makes up for in talent. Furthermore, the exodus of players with COVID-19 eligibility waivers coinciding with the neverending roster volatility created by the transfer portal has the Longhorns facing the same reality Ohio State (No. 101 in returning production), Georgia (No. 105), Oregon (No. 109), Ole Miss (No. 113 and other SEC and/or national title contenders.
    “These young guys want to be good and they bring good energy,” Manning said on Thursday. “That's what makes practice more fun.”
    With half of spring practice over, Manning has laid the foundation needed to make that vision a reality.
    “He's got a very infectious personality and I think people gravitate to him,” Sarkisian said of Manning on Tuesday. “One of the things I see right now is, naturally, he's leading a group of some younger players, especially the skill spots, like at the wideout spot. His confidence, I think, helps them. His understanding, his ability to connect to those guys in between series and talk to him has been helpful.
    “I also see a competitive spirit affecting the defensive side of the ball,” he added. “I think they like competing against Arch. I think they know he's going to talk a little smack to them. He's going to have fun with it, and I think that's bringing out some personality in an Anthony Hill or a [Malik] Muhammad or a Michael Taaffe.
    “Every day is competitive because they know 16 is going to bring it and if he gets them, he's going to let them know about it.”
    Sarkisian has hammered growth home leading up to spring practice, and he mentioned it several times on Tuesday.
    If Manning starts to trend upward, and the team’s growth mirrors his, Texas can head into the postseason as a team nobody wants to face.
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