Texas Football: 5 best former Longhorns in the NFL in 2020
Offensive Guard/Center. Years Pro: 2014-Present. Trey Hopkins. Scouting Report. 4. player. 56. Pick Analysis
A rise to prominence highlights why the former Texas football starting offensive guard/center Trey Hopkins is in this spot on the list. The Longhorns got a good amount of value out of Hopkins during his time on the Forty Acres, until he went undrafted in the 2014 NFL Draft. Hopkins is a former All-Big 12 First Team honoree from the 2013 season, but he was one of the major snubs in the 2014 NFL Draft class.
However, Hopkins put together an incredible journey to where he is in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals at this moment. He started in all 16 games with the Bengals at center last season. That was a shift that the Bengals were working toward in each of the last three seasons with Hopkins. He was an offensive guard/center hybrid in 2018 and mostly a guard in 2017.
The approximate value that Hopkins posted with the Bengals in each of the last three seasons progressed too. His approximate value rating was five in 2017 and 2018 and it added one more point in 2019. But the 2019 campaign was the first where Hopkins started in each of the 16 games he played in his NFL career.
Hopkins was on the field for nearly every snap the Bengals had last season. He also helped spurn one of the better rushing attacks in the AFC in front of former Oklahoma Sooners running back Joe Mixon. The performance that Hopkins put out on the field for the Bengals in 2019 earned him a three-year contract extension worth more than $20 million, back in December.