JD PicKell: What Texas' plethora of offensive playmakers mean for opposing defenses in 2023

Heading into his third season and coming off an eight-win campaign in 2022, coach Steve Sarkisian has the pieces in place to make a major run at the College Football Playoff this fall. The sheer number of offensive playmakers Texas has should give opponents nightmares.

Starting quarterback Quinn Ewers will be back, and though star running back Bijan Robinson is now in the NFL, the Longhorns have a litany of talented options at the skill positions.

“There’s so many weapons on this Texas offense. So many,” On3’s JD PicKell said on Monday. “And you’re fired up about it. You’ve got AD Mitchell from Georgia, Xavier Worthy, a healthy version of him this year. Ja’Tavion Sanders, probably the best tight end in the Big 12. You’ve got some weapons. Isaiah Neyor, when he’s healthy he’s got a ton of juice around him.”

There are a lot of Texas offensive playmakers for Ewers there.

Worthy led the team in receiving a year ago, hauling in 60 catches for 760 yards and nine touchdowns. Sanders wasn’t far behind at 54 catches for 613 yards and five touchdowns.

Mitchell is an intriguing transfer from Georgia, where he struggled with injuries in 2022 after a promising freshman campaign. In that freshman season he logged 29 catches for 426 yards and four touchdowns for the eventual 2021 national champions.

“There’s so many weapons, and why this is important for the Texas offense, it becomes a numbers game for the defense,” PicKell said. “Simplistically put, the defense has to decide, ‘Do we want to give extra attention to the pass game or to the run game?’ And with how many weapons this offense has it’s going to be very difficult to allocate the proper number of defenders to the pass game.

“Because, listen, you can’t put a safety on Ja’Tavion Sanders and then also have enough guys to fill in the run game as well. You can’t double-cover Xavier Worthy and then expect to have enough people in the box to then also play the run game when whichever running back gets the ball. So it creates this bind for the defense to where you’ve got to pick which kind of way you want to lose, quite frankly. Which kind of personnel do you want to bet on?”

Where PicKell sees the Texas offense really thriving is in the RPO game.

Ewers is an experienced enough quarterback at this point that he should be making the right decisions more often than not. And given the plethora of Texas offensive playmakers, that spells trouble for opposing defenses.

That’s not to say there aren’t still some question marks. Replacing Robinson is one. But PicKell thinks the Longhorns have a lot to be excited about.

“Who steps up in that running back room? Lot of options,” PicKell said. “Lot of talented backs. But just curious to see what the efficacy is there.

“Longhorn fans, get excited. Your RPO scheme should be very fun to watch this coming season, and you have high expectations, and you should have high expectations. Should be a fun year on the 40 Acres.”