Texas Tech football: The five best players on Red Raiders’ roster

Texas Tech football is about to begin spring practice so let’s look at who the five best players on the current roster are.

The offseason is about to pick up with the start of spring football so it’s a natural time to look at where this roster stands and right now, there are no unquestioned stars on the team.  There’s no All-Big 12 QB, no 1,000-yard rusher, no sure-fire NFL draft pick on defense, no player on either side of the ball that we know will be among the best players in the conference next year.

That’s concerning given the fact that almost all of the top performers from last year’s 4-8 team have graduated.  In fact, if you listed the best players from the 2019 season, your list will almost certainly begin with a handful of seniors.

Middle linebacker Jordyn Brooks was without question the best player on last fall’s team.  With 108 tackles in 11 games, he earned second-team All-American honors.  It was the most tackles for a Red Raider since 2015.  There’s no one anywhere near that caliber of player on either side of the ball currently on the roster and filling his shoes will be one of the toughest tasks facing Matt Wells and his coaching staff this offseason.

Safety Douglas Coleman III could have arguably been the second-best player on last year’s team.  The senior earned first-team All-Big 12 honors after making the transition from corner thanks to eight interceptions.

Offensive tackle Travis Bruffy was another all-conference honoree, earning second-team recognition.  That came after a season when he started all 12 games at left tackle to bring his career total to 34 starts.

The best receiver on the team might have been R.J. Turner, who was the most consistent pass catcher Tech had by the end of the season.  After getting a shot to start in the middle of the year, the grad transfer wound up leading the team with 45 receptions and had 654 yards, second-most on the team, trailing Erik Ezukanma by just ten.

The best defensive lineman on the team was the overlooked Broderick Washington.  He led all DL on the roster with 39 tackles and now, he’s headed to the NFL Combine in Indianapolis to try to impress scouts and improve his draft stock.

With so much talent leaving the program, there’s a lack of certainty about who is going to step up to lead the way in 2020.  There are no stars like Graham Harrell, Michael Crabtree, Pat Mahomes, or Wes Welker that we know are going to be stars this year but there are some players that could earn that label and for Tech to get back to a bowl game, they are going to have to take the next step in their careers.  So let’s take a look at the five best players on the current roster and we will start by looking at a player whose position is often overlooked unless something goes terribly wrong.