Texas Football: 5 best former Longhorns in the 2020 NFL Draft
5. Malcolm Roach, Defensive End
There’s three or four names worth watching out of the Texas football program that could be selected in the sixth or seventh round of the 2020 NFL Draft, but could very well also go undrafted. Outside of this list also exists linebacker Jeffrey McCulloch and former graduate transfer offensive guard Parker Braun. Both McCulloch and Braun were excluded from the list of former Longhorns invited to the 2020 NFL Combine.
Maybe the most intriguing name of the bunch outside of the clear top three former Longhorns in this 2020 NFL Draft class off the Forty Acres is the ex-starting defensive end/edge rusher Malcolm Roach. Last year was the most productive in total with the Longhorns for Roach, but he apparently wasn’t happy with it in the end.
Related Story. Malcolm Roach shares his perspective on usage under Todd Orlando. light
Roach made it a point to share that he wasn’t thrilled with his usage under former Texas defensive coordinator Todd Orlando in the last couple years. If that is the case that Orlando didn’t put his skill set to the best use, then maybe he could have a more productive road to development as an edge rusher/outside linebacker/defensive end early in his NFL career.
To his point, Roach was the most productive in his per game stats over the course of his four years with the Longhorns under former head coach Charlie Strong. When Strong was in the final year of his coaching tenure with Texas, Orlando was not the defensive coordinator.
If some NFL team is willing to buy into Roach’s strong NFL Combine results (4.85-40 yard dash time and 20 benchpress reps) and that he had the wrong usage in Austin, then he could be worth a fifth-seventh round pick in the draft.