PFF snubs Texas football’s Xavier Worthy from All-America First Team

On Aug. 1, Pro Football Focus released their preseason All-American Teams ahead of the start of the 2022 college football season, which featured a couple of star Texas football players. The two Texas players that were included on the preseason All-America Teams from PFF this year are junior running back Bijan Robinson and sophomore wide receiver Xavier Worthy.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns do have two clear-cut stars to lead this team in 2022 in Bijan and Worthy. Yet, only one of these Longhorns’ star players was included on the PFF preseason All-American First Team.

Bijan was included as one of the First-Team running backs along with the versatile Kansas State Wildcats star Deuce Vaughn.

But Worthy wasn’t one of the three wide receivers included among the First-Team wide receivers by PFF this year. Worthy got the Second-Team nod along with the USC Trojans transfer Mario Williams and North Carolina Tar Heels junior Josh Downs.

The three wide receivers that PFF included on the First-Team were Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba, USC’s Jordan Addison, and LSU’s Kayshon Boutte.

Two of these three wide receivers included on the First-Team make sense over Worthy. Smith-Njigba and Addison were clearly more productive in the Power Five last season than Worthy. But the same couldn’t be said for Boutte.

Yet, it’s not very surprising that PFF included Boutte on the First-Team ahead of Worthy. We’ve talked about this on here before when PFF dropped their preseason wide receiver rankings, but they clearly don’t value the production that Worthy had last season that was much more proficient than Boutte.

Star Texas football WR Xavier Worthy snubbed from PFF All-America First Team

Last season, Boutte registered 38 catches for 509 receiving yards and nine receiving touchdowns. Meanwhile, Worthy nearly racked up 1,000 receiving yards and hauled in a dozen touchdown catches. Worthy was also the higher-ranked of these two wideouts both in terms of offensive grade and receiving grade in 2021.

That is where this argument gets very confusing from the PFF perspective. These are PFF’s grades and their preseason honors, yet they don’t seem to line that up when comparing Boutte and Worthy.

The proof is in the production that Worthy deserves the First-Team All-American nod for the preseason at wide receiver over Boutte. Worthy’s production as a true freshman, and his potential in this Sark offensive scheme from here on out, clearly makes him one of the three most potent wideouts in the country heading into the 2022 season.

Moreover, this definitely wasn’t the biggest snub on the PFF preseason All-America Teams, though. PFF placing USC’s Caleb Williams and South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler on the preseason All-America Second and Third Teams, respectively, over Ohio State’s CJ Stroud should be illegal.

Stroud clearly deserved the Second-Team preseason All-America nod at quarterback from PFF instead of the Honorable Mention he received.

Texas finished up last season with a record of 5-7 (3-6 Big 12), missing out on bowl season for the first time since 2016. Worthy and the Longhorns will open up the regular season at home on Sep. 3 against Louisiana-Monroe.