It’s fascinating. So much of Texas Tech’s identity as a football program is centered around offense, but the vast majority of NFL Draft attention for the Red Raiders this season is zooming in on the defensive stars that helped elevate Texas Tech to the College Football Playoff this season.
Take Texas Tech defensive lineman Lee Hunter, for example, who is starting to get more and more attention from NFL Draft folks who would love to see the defensive star end up with their preferred franchise at the next level.
Hunter, whose career actually got started with the Auburn Tigers (but he didn’t play a down for them and ended up with the UCF Knights shortly thereafter) was a huge reason for the sort of success that the Red Raiders had on the defensive side of the ball this season. And he absolutely deserves to get plenty of attention from a variety of NFL scouts and NFL-focused writers.
And if you look at where Hunter is being projected to land in Athlon Sports’ Luke Easterling’s 2026 mock NFL Draft, you’ll find that he’s being projected to stay in the Lone Star State. According to the mock draft, the Houston Texans in the second round would pick Hunter with the No. 38 overall pick.
There are certainly worse places for a talented defensive lineman to end up.
Athlon Sports’ 2026 NFL Mock Draft pairs Texas Tech Red Raiders’ star Lee Hunter with the Houston Texans
During his time with the Red Raiders, Hunter continued to play at the same sort of excellent level that he was doing with the UCF Knights. Hunter racked up a total of 41 combined tackles, totaled 10.5 tackles for loss, and recorded 2.5 sacks this season.
In the entirety of his college football career, Hunter managed to record a total of 172 combined tackles (which is a lot), 32 tackles for loss, and 7.5 sacks.
And Easterling is pairing that kind of talent with the Houston Texans, who had one of the most physically imposing and terrifying defenses in the NFL this season. As a team, Houston managed to combine for 47 sacks in the 17 regular season games. Putting Hunter on that defense would be a lot of fun for Texans fans.