Jonathon Brooks to enter the NFL draft
Texas third-year running back Jonathon Brooks will forego his junior and senior seasons and enter the 2024 NFL draft, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
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Brooks makes the move in order to strike when his professional stock is at its highest even in the aftermath of a torn ACL suffered versus TCU on November 11. During the 2023 season, Brooks went from CJ Baxter’s copilot to the lead back in Steve Sarkisian’s offense. He rushed 187 times for 1139 yards and 10 touchdowns while also hauling in 25 passes for 286 yards and a touchdown. After his ACL injury, Brooks took the field for one final time during the Big 12 Championship. With the game in hand and the Longhorns running down the remainder of the clock, Brooks took the field while Arch Manning kneeled one final time to extinguish the clock before handing the ball to Brooks.
Brooks rushed for 100 or more yards six times during the 2023 season, including a career-high 218 yards against Kansas. He gave Sarkisian three straight seasons of 1000-yard rushers at Texas along with Bijan Robinson’s 2021 and 2022 campaigns.
Brooks was an AP midseason first-team All-American and a second-team All-Big 12 selection in 2023 even with his injury shortened season.
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An understudy to Robinson and Roschon Johnson during his first two seasons, Brooks had a bit of a coming out party last season at Kansas. As part of a season where he rushed 30 times for 197 yards and five touchdowns, Brooks carried the ball 11 times for 108 yards and two scores in Lawrence.
He saw action in 2021 with 21 carries for 143 yards and one score. He entered during Texas’ loss to Kansas after injury depleted running back depth before eventually leaving due to his own injury.
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Should Brooks be drafted in spite of his ACL injury, he’ll be the third running back from Texas to get drafted during Sarkisian’s tenure along with Robinson and Johnson.
