Texas Football: Grading every portal addition for the Longhorns thus far
Jalen Catalon, S
Texas needed to upgrade the safety position in the portal this offseason. Sark and safeties coach Blake Gideon were able to accomplish that task by landing a commitment out of the portal from the former All-SEC Second-Team selection Catalon from Arkansas on Jan. 9.
If Catalon is healthy next season, I don’t think Texas will be able to say that it could find a better safety out of the portal than Catalon. The 5-foot-9 and 200-pound defensive back is an absolute playmaker that shines in multiple phases.
Catalon is a ball-hawking safety in pass coverage, evidenced by his seven interceptions in the two seasons where he played at least a half-dozen games for the Razorbacks (2020 and 2021). He also came up with more than a dozen forced incompletions in 2020 and 2021.
Meanwhile, Catalon is a hard-hitting sure tackler that thrives in run defense coming out of the box safety position. Catalon ranked among the highest-graded safeties in run defense in the SEC in the two seasons he played on a regular basis for Arkansas. Catalon likes to live in the opposing team’s backfields as he can track the ball carrier down just about as well as anyone from the safety position.
However, the question surrounding Catalon’s health is the main reason why he’s probably not playing a fifth year at Arkansas, or even testing the waters in the NFL Draft. Catalon was one of the best and most productive safeties in the Power Five between 2020 and 2021. But he missed essentially the entirety of the 2022 season due to an upper-body injury.
And Catalon also missed a little more than half of the 2021 campaign due to injury issues.
Due to the injury concerns with Catalon, combined with Texas’ portal miss with the former Syracuse Orange redshirt sophomore safety Ja’Had Carter (committed to the Ohio State Buckeyes last week), I am not giving this portal addition an A.