Texas Football: Top 5 early 2024 NFL Draft Longhorns prospects
3. Xavier Worthy, WR
As I mentioned in the last part of this list, the top four Longhorns prospects in the 2024 draft class all have the potential to be selected on Day 1 or Day 2.
That is most certainly the case for the former Freshman All-American wide receiver Xavier Worthy. Now heading into his third year on the 40, the 6-foot-1 and 165-pound two-time All-Big 12 wide receiver Worthy needs to find that form he put on display during his true freshman campaign in 2021.
Two seasons ago, Worthy looked like he was well on pace to becoming potentially the most explosive and dangerous wide receiver in space in the entire country. He ranked in the top 10 in the Power Five in yards after catch (526) and yards after catch per reception (8.5) during the 2021 season.
The problem for Worthy last season was that he lost the chemistry on the deep ball with quarterback Quinn Ewers. And he started to have some issues dropping the football. The inability of Ewers and Worthy to connect on the deep ball severely limited what else Worthy was able to do with the ball in his hands last season, leading to regressions almost across the board in his stats year-over-year.
If Worthy can have a bounce-back season in 2023, his elusiveness, balance, and straight-line speed will be more than enough to put him in the realm of a late first or early second-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.