Texas football's NFL draft hopefuls put on one last chance to impress at Pro Day workouts

The Texas products who've entered their names for the upcoming NFL draft had their last workout of the offseason on Thursday at Texas Football's Pro Timing Day. The former Longhorns all made their final appeal in front of all 32 teams as to why they should be taken in the 2024 NFL draft.

Texas hosted Adonai Mitchell, Xavier Worthy, Byron Murphy II, T'Vondre Sweat, Jaylan Ford, Jordan Whittington, Keilan Robinson, Ja'Tavion Sanders, Jett Bush, Ryan Sanborn and Ryan Watts for workouts and drills. A few of the NFL teams in attendance also had their head coach in the building, with Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, Bengals coach Zac Taylor and Colts coach Shane Steichen being the three who made the trip.

Here's some observations from Texas' pro day.

All eyes on DT duo

Texas' defensive tackle due of Murphy and Sweat were dominant for much of the 2023 season, so much so that they will probably both be within the top 60 players selected in the draft.

Murphy ran the three-cone drill in 7.5 seconds and then participated with Sweat in defensive tackle drills, where both showed off the speed and strength that terrorized college football this past year. While the Colts don't have a need at defensive tackle, it's worth noting that the Dolphins and Bengals have gaping holes in their lines after losing Christian Wilkens and D.J. Reader respectively in free agency.

Both could aim to take Murphy with their first round pick - Cincinnati has 18 and Miami has 21 - or hope that Sweat falls to them in the second round. Regardless, keep an eye on those two teams in particular on draft night.

Ja'Tavion Sanders underwhelms

While Sanders is seen as one of the top tight end prospects in the NFL draft, the testing numbers he put up at the combine and pro day were not ideal.

The 6-foot-4, 225 pound tight end started off with the bench press, where he put up eight reps of 225 before failing to complete his ninth. For context, Robinson repped out 20 at 5-foot-8, 191 pounds.

His vertical of 30 inches was only three more than Sanborn and would've been the worst at the NFL combine had he tested there. It was the same story with his broad jump of 9'6, two inches shorter than the last place finisher from Indianapolis.

For what it's worth, Sanders' tape is what led to his draft stock being where it is. A natural pass catcher and a fluid mover, he didn't drop a ball in the receiving drills and showed that underwhelming workouts may be a poor reason to pass on him in the draft.

Whittington, a wine guy?

When talking to players after the workout, the topic of NFL draft interviews was brought up. Worthy readily admitted that he was burned out after talking to so many teams. (Not from the 40-yard dash though, as he told McDaniels that he didn't run because he didn't want to break the record again.)

Whittington, however, mentioned a couple questions that were brought up during his interviews that stood out simply for the strangeness. For example...

"What's your favorite alcoholic drink choice? Stuff like that. But I get it though, they want to know what type of players they got," Whittington said.

The receiver says that while he usually opts for red wine, tequila would be his preferred option if he was in Mexico for one reason or another. What those choices says about Whittington's prospects, we have no idea. The NFL works in mysterious ways.