Texas Football: 2-deep offensive depth chart heading into fall camp

Tight end

Starter: Jahleel Billingsley OR Ja’Tavion Sanders

Backup: Gunnar Helm

An underrated position group to watch that should be improved in 2022 is tight end. Texas didn’t necessarily have poor tight end play throughout last season. But it definitely wasn’t a game-changing position group for special teams coordinator/tight ends coach Jeff Banks, Sark, and the Longhorns in 2021.

Texas lost senior tight end Cade Brewer due to a lack of eligibility this offseason, and junior Jared Wiley to the NCAA Transfer Portal. But those losses shouldn’t hurt Texas at the tight end position this fall.

Texas brought in a tight end by way of the transfer portal this offseason in the former Alabama junior Jahleel Billingsley that should get starting reps out of the gates this fall. Billingsley should combine with the former five-star Denton-Ryan recruit and sophomore Ja’Tavion Sanders to give Texas some potent 12 and 22 personnel looks this coming season.

This duo of Billingsley and Sanders should make Texas more dynamic in the passing game out of the tight end slot. Billingsley has NFL-caliber tools at the position that will make him a threat out in the flats. And Sanders has the tools necessary to be a threat at multiple levels of the field in the passing game, including on the outside, thanks to his insane vertical ability and 6-foot-4 frame.

The main question surrounding this duo of Sanders and Billingsley will be their production in blocking assignments. Neither Sanders nor Billingsley is particularly adept or proven as a blocking tight end. That’s where the presence of second-year tight end Gunnar Helm could help at the position.

Helm is a natural blocking tight end that still poses a decent threat as a receiver. He should be the backup in the tight end room heading into fall camp.