Longhorns DE Jacoby Jones Is Heading To The NFL

One of the Longhorns best pass rushers is heading to the next level

Matt Galatzan | Dec 10, 2021

AUSTIN -- The Texas Longhorns have already been through substantial change in the short time since the 2021 season ended, and now, their best pass rusher is heading to the NFL.

On Friday afternoon, senior defensive end Jacoby Jones declared his intentions to enter the 2022 NFL Draft after three seasons with the Longhorns.

"Longhorn fans it’s been a journey, Thank You," Jones said via his Twitter announcement. "Excited to take the next step in my career."

Jones, who transferred to Texas after two years of all-conference play at Butler Community College, played in 23 games with the Longhorns, finishing his career with 62 total tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, and one sack (2020), and also had one forced fumble and two fumble recoveries.

He was also known as one of the Longhorns' top impact defensive players, and while the stats do not exactly bear that out, his absence was noticeable through the stretch he missed during the 2021 season following his injury against Oklahoma.

Luckily for the Longhorns, reinforcements are on the way along the defensive front, where the team has eight defensive linemen committed in the 2022 class alone.

Four of those commitments are edge rushers as well, including Brophy College Preparatory (Phoenix, AZ) edge Zac Swanson, Liberty (Henderson, NV) edge Anthony Jones, Texas High (Texarkana, TX) edge Derrick Brown, and Ascension Catholic (Donaldsonville, LA) edge and SI99 member, J'Mond Tapp.

Jones is now the third Texas defender to announce his intentions to leave the program on Friday after B.J. Foster and Chris Adimora entered the transfer portal.

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Published Dec 10, 2021

MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.