How the Texas Longhorns Developed Their 2026 NFL Draft Class

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian has a penchant for sending his guys to the league and has put another strong group together for the 2026 NFL Draft.

While they will not reach the heights of the 2024 or 2025 classes, both of which set program records for the most players drafted in a single year, this year's class still has standouts.

No two prospects came from the same football background, but Sarkisian was able to turn them all into next-level talents. Here is how he did it.

Anthony Hill Jr.

If there is any Longhorn who could have skipped college and gone straight to the NFL, it is Anthony Hill Jr.

He was the No. 1 linebacker and No. 17 player overall in the 2023 recruiting class and made an immediate impact on the Longhorns defense.

From day one he was the downhill, thumping linebacker that he is today. However, Sarkisian and former defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkoski helped him grow as a coverage player and as a gap-reader.

They highlighted his best attributes by frequently playing him as a free-wheeling weakside linebacker and sending him on run-blitzes but also forced him out of his comfort zone by playing him in the middle and making him quarterback the defenses.

Now, Hill enters the draft not quite a polished prospect but a much more complete player than he was coming out of high school.

Malik Muhammad

While not as highly touted as Hill, Malik Muhammad was still a bundle of tools as a four-star defensive back coming out of Dallas' South Oak Cliff.

Muhammad was far from raw coming out of high school, but he has certainly developed the finer points of his footwork and hand usage under Kwiatkoski, especially when playing deep zone coverages.

His assignment on the vast majority of plays was to guard the deep fourth in a match-coverage scheme, which helped him understand some of the most complex defensive coverage systems in football. He also learned how to use his hands and get physical in man-coverages.

He has also greatly increased his knowledge of the game of football, something NFL scouts have already taken notice of.

Michael Taaffe

Unlike Muhammad and Hill, Michael Taaffe was not a highly-recruited player out of high school. In fact, he walked-on to Texas' football team, so he has come the furthest of any Longhorn.

He was always a leader and playmaker, intercepting future teammate Quinn Ewers twice in the 2020 UIL 6A State Championship game, but everything else was taught to him at Texas.

He played all over the defensive back field at Texas, which has turned him into the do-it-all defender he is today. He has also grown as a tackler, landing big hits without drawing flags.

Five seasons with the Longhorns have taken Taaffe from a walk-on to an NFL-ready prospect, a developmental arc that will not soon be forgotten.