Texas offensive tackle Kelvin Banks declares for 2025 NFL Draft

Texas junior left tackle Kelvin Banks, the No. 18 player on The Athletic’s Big Board, will enter the 2025 NFL Draft, he announced on Sunday.
Banks, who won the 2024 Outland Trophy and Lombardi Award, is the No. 2 offensive tackle in the draft, according to The Athletic’s Dane Brugler.

Banks was widely expected to enter the draft after this season and is projected as a first-round pick. In July at the SEC media days, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian joked that he brought Banks instead of another senior because “this is his probably his last year with us.” The three-year starter was one of the top players at his position throughout his college career. He was a freshman All-American in 2022, a second-team All-American in 2023 and a unanimous first-team All-American in 2024.

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The 6-foot-4, 320-pound Banks started 42 of Texas’ 43 games the past three seasons and allowed just four sacks in 1,543 pass-blocking snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.

In December, Sarkisian remarked about how important Banks was to the rebuilding process at Texas. Banks, a former five-star recruit, visited during the Longhorns’ 5-7 campaign in 2021 and was in the building for their loss against Kansas. Banks signed that winter and started immediately as a true freshman in 2022. Texas went 33-10 in Banks’ three years at Texas.

“We had signed seven offensive linemen in that class,” Sarkisian said. “Six of them were mid-year (enrollees), Kelvin was the one that was not. But then he’s turning around, starting as a true freshman, and his second career start’s against Alabama, and he’s blocking two top-10 picks in Will Anderson and Dallas Turner.

“I just think it speaks to the volume of the type of competitor he is, the calming demeanor that he has in some of the most stressful moments. … Just been super impressed with him … and what a legacy he’s left here at the University of Texas.”

(Photo: Michael Wade / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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