Texas Football: 3 seniors who would benefit from another year at UT

Various key Texas football players have NFL Draft decision to make after the team was eliminated from the College Football Playoff after a semifinals game loss in the Allstate Sugar Bowl to the No. 2 Washington Huskies on Jan. 1. Texas came up just a hair shy of Washington in the CFP semis at the Sugar Bowl, losing by a score of 37-31 after coming within around a dozen yards of winning the game.

But head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns are primed to keep this program in the status of title contender heading into the first year for Texas in the SEC in 2024. If Texas gets some key players who are NFL Draft-eligible to return for another year in college next season, that will only boost this team's chances of making it back to the College Football Playoff.

Texas football seniors who should return to school after the CFP semis loss in the Sugar Bowl

Texas's chances of making it back to the Playoff are even better with the CFP expanding from a four to a 12-team field next season.

A few of the Texas players who have already announced they will not be returning to Texas for another season are junior wide receiver Xavier Worthy, redshirt senior wide receiver Jordan Whittington, and redshirt senior defensive lineman T'Vondre Sweat. We're expecting to get wind of more NFL Draft decisions for key Texas players in the next few days.

Here's a look at three Texas seniors who should stay for another season on the Forty Acres in 2024.

Jake Majors, C

Senior center Jake Majors had the best season of his career at Texas during the 2023 campaign. Majors was the highest-graded pass blocker among Big 12 centers and allowed the fewest sacks of his career (zero) this season.

Majors emerged as an invaluable piece of the Texas interior offensive line this season. He is the lead communicator and anchor to this interior offensive line. And one could argue that he was the best performing interior offensive linemen among the starters for the Longhorns this season.

Regarding effectiveness, Majors was the highest-graded pass and run blocker among Texas's three starting interior offensive linemen (Majors, RG DJ Campbell, and LG Hayden Conner).

Majors has another year of eligibility remaining thanks to the COVID-19 redshirt rule. If he did return to Texas and had another career season, getting a second year of solid film out there would help his NFL Draft stock.

Since he doesn't have much NFL Draft buzz at the moment, that would make sense for Majors to return to Texas for a fifth season to continue to develop and get stronger at the center position.

If Majors did return to school, Texas would have four of its five starters along the offensive line heading into the SEC in 2024.