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A way too early look at Texas Tech football’s 2025 NFL draft prospects
Tahj Brooks leads Texas Tech football list of 2025 NFL draft prospects
The Doak Walker Award semifinalist’s 290 carries were second-most in the FBS in 2023, and his 1,538 rushing yards were fourth most.
The Texas Tech football program went into NFL draft weekend with one player sure to be selected and a few who profiled with late-round or undrafted free-agent grades.
That’s exactly how it worked out. The Arizona Cardinals drafted safety Dadrion Taylor-Demerson in the fourth round, the Jacksonville Jaguars took defensive end Myles Cole in the seventh round and several Red Raiders came to terms on free-agent deals.
It was the eighth year in a row the Red Raiders had no more than two players drafted, and more of the same could be in store next year.
Running back Tahj Brooks looks like a good bet to be drafted in the middle rounds. No other Red Raiders are sure to be selected next year, though, when Green Bay hosts the festivities.
Here is a way-too-early look at the Red Raiders’ 2025 draft prospects, listed alphabetically and not necessarily all-encompassing.
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Safety Julien (C.J.) Baskerville
Baskerville’s rangy at 6-3, 215, and Pro Football Focus gave him the highest grades of any Tech defensive player last year overall, as well as for defending the run and for tackling proficiency. He’s dealt with foot, toe, wrist and knee injuries, playing through pain as well as missing seven games the past two years.
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Running back Tahj Brooks
Tech 5-10, 230-pound bell cow is coming off a season in which he carried 290 times for 1,538 yards, ranking second and fourth in the FBS. The Doak Walker Award semifinalist decided to stay another year based on feedback from NFL scouts and efforts from the Matador Club collective.
The website NFLDraftBuzz.com ranks Brooks the No. 11 running back for 2025 and the No. 113 overall prospect.
Inside Tahj Brooks’ decision to stay with Texas Tech football in 2024
Offensive lineman Davion Carter
Carter’s short at 6-foot and 295 pounds, but among FBS offensive guards last season, he received the sixth-highest run-blocking grade, the eighth-highest pass-blocking grade and the third best overall grade from Pro Football Focus. That was at Memphis, for whom he made 23 starts before transferring to Tech.
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Tight end Jalin Conyers
The former national top-250 recruit from Gruver spent a year at Oklahoma and three at Arizona State before coming back to West Texas. The 6-4, 265-pound Conyers has plenty of size to block, but he’s at his best as a receiver, catching 68 passes for 784 yards and five touchdowns the past two years.
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Wide receiver Josh Kelly
Kelly came to Texas Tech after playing four years for his hometown Fresno State and one for Washington State. His 61 catches for 923 yards and eight touchdowns last season were career highs, and he impressed coaches and teammates this spring with his run-after-catch ability.
How Caleb Douglas, Josh Kelly connected with Texas Tech football
Cornerback Bralyn Lux
The Fresno State transfer had the second best overall grade among Big 12 cornerbacks last season by Pro Football Focus, scoring well both in pass coverage and defending the run. He’s undersized at 5-11, 185 and he’ll be under the gun with multi-year starting corners Malik Dunlap and Rayshad Williams completing their eligibility.
Bralyn Lux earns high praise in Texas Tech football’s first practice of the 2023 season
Offensive lineman Caleb Rogers
Pro Football Focus gave Rogers the seventh-best grade of 33 tackles in the Big 12 last season, but he’s moving inside for 2024 based on the recommendation of NFL evaluators. Rogers (6-5, 310) goes into his fifth season with 42 career starts, all at tackle.
Texas Tech football lineman Caleb Rogers sees his future being at center
Offensive guard Vinny Sciury
Sciury (6-4, 295) transferred from Toledo, where he started 33 games in a row at left guard and earned first-team all-Mid-American Conference recognition in 2023 on a team that finished 11-3. He received the 12th highest pass-blocking grade among FBS offensive guards from Pro Football Focus.
Transfer portal additions say Texas Tech football coaches have lived up to promises
Tight end Mason Tharp
There are 133 teams in the FBS, and Pro Football Focus gave Tharp the 11th-best run-blocking grade among all the tight ends last season. At 6-9, 270 pounds, he can move people, and it can take multiple defenders to drag him down after a catch. Health, especially concussions, are a red flag with Tharp having missed nine games the past three seasons.
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Originally from Le Mans, France, Gilmer (TX) five-star offensive tackle Ismael Camara has experienced a meteoric rise since he first stepped on a football field in America.
Camara began playing varsity football as a junior and caught the eye of nearly every major Power Four program in the country thanks to his size and natural ability.
With no shortage of options, Camara has come to his college decision ahead of his year and it will be one that will keep in the Lone Star State.
On Saturday, Camara announced his commitment to Texas choosing Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns over LSU, Oregon, SMU, Tennessee and Texas A&M.
247Sports ranks the 6-foot-6, 340-pounder as the No. 14 overall prospect, the No. 2 offensive tackle and No. 3 player in Texas for the 2027 cycle. The USA TODAY High School Sports composite ranking, a ranking based on the composite rankings from industry leaders, has Dobson as the No. 20 overall player in the class and No. 3 offensive tackle.
Among the stories of loss and heartbreak throughout the Hill Country are also many examples of heroism and extraordinary efforts to save those that could be saved.
A year after the tragedy, CBS News Texas caught up with a pair of Kerrville police officers who were off duty and at home in Hunt, when they decided to help, saving a handful of people who were moments from being swept away.
They took us to the spot where it all happened to reflect on what life is like a year later.
“It’s hard to imagine my town or the town that I live in and love so much, go through such a devastating event. It’s hard to imagine what it looked like that morning. I don’t want to remember what it looked like that morning,” said Kerrville Police Sgt. Tyler Cottonware.
He may not want to, but it’s impossible to forget it.
For Cottonware and his colleague, Det. Ryan Casey, the events of July Fourth, 2025, are forever engraved in their memory.
Off-duty officers rushed into rising floodwaters
The officers, who happen to live near each other, had woken up in the middle of the night to discover the catastrophic flooding and immediately sprang into action.
“There was a woman and her child right over the Hunt store,” said Cottonware. “So I was able to get a ladder from a neighbor and we were able to get them down.”
“There were people kind of wherever,” Casey said. “The water kind of brought them there. There was one over here in the river, holding on to a tree. So we couldn’t get to him. One guy was here on an electrical box.”
“From where we are standing, the water was about 50 foot up the roadway here,” Cottonware said. “So it was way above our heads.”
One by one, they brought those they could reach to safety.
They stayed near the victims they couldn’t immediately pull, and eventually, as the water receded in the long hours that followed, they were able to get to them all.
“The one little girl that we got off of the roof of the Hunt store, she goes to school with my kids,” said Cottonware. “So, I see her at school functions and she always comes and gives me a big hug … “‘m not a crier, but it gets me… it gets me, you know.”
The officers reject the label of “heroes”
Every tragic story needs a good hero, and that term has been extended to Cottonware and Casey many times. Heroes of that night, at least in saving those people.
“We’re not heroes. He’ll say the same,” Cottonware said of himself and Casey. “It’s humbling for people to say that, but I would like to think that anybody put in our situation would have done the same thing.”
For now, the rebuilding continues, as life seemingly tries to return to the calm and beauty the hills and streams are known for.
For Cottonware and Casey, these are daily reminders of what life is like now.
“It’s made me think about life as mentioned. How delicate it can be in an instant,” Casey said. “Moving forward, it really makes you think about the oath that you took.”
“It’s brought us together,” said Cottonware. “Just different people from the community from around the state, around the nation have been brought together.”
That togetherness is on display around town, anywhere you drive and anyone you talk to: they all say the only way they will eventually get back to normal is by leaning on each other.
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