Texas Football: Predicting Week 1 offensive depth chart

Offensive Tackles

Right Tackle: Derek Kerstetter

It could be a sizable switch for the Longhorns to move Kerstetter from center to tackle this fall. But that is likely the best fit for Kerstetter given the other personnel manning the line this fall. And since we’re only talking about the projected starters here, Kerstetter deserves mentioning as the potentially most productive and consistent offensive linemen in 2021.

Right tackle does make more sense for Kerstetter than the left side since he does have more than 1,500 career snaps at this spot. He doesn’t have a single snap playing at left tackle. Kerstetter was ultra-switchable for the Longhorns playing at right tackle, especially in 2017 and 2019.

In fact, Kerstetter’s highest-graded pass blocking season, by a good margin, came when he took the bulk of his snaps at right tackle in 2019. This move is good for Kerstetter and Texas both.

Left Tackle: Christian Jones

Yet another senior (or super senior) offensive linemen rounds out this part of the list among projected starters for Texas. The 6-foot-6 and 310-pound senior Christian Jones was one of the more effective offensive linemen in fall camp for Flood and the Longhorns thus far.

Pretty much the entirety of the nearly 800 snaps Jones took in his career thus far at Texas came at either right or left tackle. While most of those snaps specifically came at right tackle, it makes more sense to keep Jones on the left and Kerstetter opposite of him.

Jones tends to be a more effective run blocker than pass blocker. But he’s shown signs of improvement in that regard this offseason. It is worth noting, though, that Jones gave up more than 25 quarterback hurries last year in just over 430 snaps on pass-blocking plays. That’s not great.