The next Xavier Worthy already standing out for Texas Football and should be a first round NFL Draft pick soon
Before the Transfer Portal, teams would often struggle to replace special playmakers who would leave for the NFL. But now that the best players in the country are free to join other schools at will, elite playmakers can now transfer to the best offenses in the game immediately. Xavier Worthy (and Adonai Mitchell) both look […]
Before the Transfer Portal, teams would often struggle to replace special playmakers who would leave for the NFL. But now that the best players in the country are free to join other schools at will, elite playmakers can now transfer to the best offenses in the game immediately. Xavier Worthy (and Adonai Mitchell) both look to be fringe first round draft picks this spring, but Texas football may have already found their next star in Isaiah Bond.
Bond spent his first two seasons with the Alabama Crimson Tide, his first year primarily as a rotational player, then in 2023 leading the team in receptions. His raw stat line won't wow many people as he caught just 48 receptions for 668 yards and four scores last season, but that was actually 22% of the Crimson Tide's receiving production.
As Bud Elliott of CBS Sports and the Cover 3 Podcast reminds us in his post below, Isaiah Bond was a big play machine in pivotal moments, and his speed can be an absolute difference maker.
The buzz out of spring camp from multiple team beat reporters has been that Bond is playing in the exact role Xavier Worthy operated in last year, so expect great things from Bond. Does he have truly record-breaking speed like Worthy's 4.21-second forty-yard dash? Likely not to that extent. But he did post very similar track times in high school (sub 10.7 100 meter at his best), and can throttle down, accelerate, and burst in and out of breaks.
The Texas Longhorns return just 16% of their receiving production from a year ago, so they're in great need of a playmaker to step up. Texas also brought in Matthew Golden from Houston, Silas Bolden from Oregon State, and return a bevy of young unproven underclassmen at wide receiver, but Bond is the player reportedly making the most noise already.
Bond is draft eligible for 2025, and if he takes over the alpha receiver role with future first round quarterback Quinn Ewers tossing him the ball, he should find himself selected in the first round here soon too.
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