TE coach Jeff Banks explains addition of Jack Endries and his fit with other players in the room

Over the past two seasons, no P4 school has recorded more receiving yards from its top two tight ends than the University of Texas has. The Longhorns are also one of just three schools to have two different pass catchers from the position drafted in the first four rounds of the last two NFL drafts.

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Despite this, however, Texas entered the offseason expecting to return zero total catches in its tight end room. With the likes of Ja’Tavion Sanders, Gunnar Helm, and even Juan Davis off to the pros, the Longhorns were expected to lean on redshirt freshman Jordan Washington as the No. 1 pass catcher.

With that little experience, however, Texas’ staff quickly diagnosed that help would be needed in the room, which is why the Longhorns eventually sprang for the addition of former Cal TE Jack Endries in the spring portal window.

This, however, was not a blindside to the tight end group, as special teams coordinator and tight ends coach Jeff Banks put it in his presser today.

“You gotta be transparent. You gotta be honest with your players,” Banks said. “We sat down with all of them before spring, in the middle of winter, and said, ‘Hey, look guys, we’re going to go bring someone in. And so there’s gonna be some guys, but I need your help, like recruiting them here too.’ So when they come in the visit, they feel that. And these players are unselfish. They want to win. Jordan Washington was great. Spencer (Shannon) was great. They were all great.”

Despite knowing it would potentially cost Washington his starting spot, the idea of added competition wasn’t a problem for any of the players in the tight end room. As Banks put it, these players want to win more than anything, and the players understood that with zero returning starts, it was likely some help would be needed.

The transition to Endries was seamless; his skillset worked exactly with what Texas wanted from a tight end, and the room itself was welcoming.

“He’s done a great job just kind of meshing into the team right away, being very humble and being very unselfish and being kind of cognizant of, like, ‘I don’t need to be the one all of a sudden, in the beginning, first day, leading, like, let me look and see the dynamic of the team first, and start to get to know everybody.’ And I think he’s done a tremendous job in seven weeks,” Banks said about Endries.

Now with Endries, who caught 56 passes for over 600 yards last year, Banks has a much more solid group heading into the season. Endries is expected to be the No. 1, but Banks is happy with the development of Washington as the TE2 on the depth chart.

“He can be an every-down tight end,” Banks said about Washington. “Washington now is 260 and change. He can catch; he’s got a great catch radius. I think the physicality with pads on in the run game is going to be the key for him.”

Banks is most excited for his tight ends, young and old, to get into blocking battles with the talented edge group Texas possesses over fall camp. The No. 2 tight end in the Sarkisian offense can sometimes catch passes but is often tasked with being a noticeable force in the blocking game.

Heading into the offseason, that seemed like the job of Spencer Shannon, a 6’7″ former three-star with a year ahead of Washington in the program, but Banks says that Washington has grown over 40 pounds and is healthier than last year—a good combo to be a force in the blocking game.

Outside of the top three, Texas features a great incoming class of tight ends. Emaree Winston has been someone we’ve raved about for over six months now after enrolling early with the team, and he has legitimate long-term upside as a pass catcher on this team. The new development this window will be with Nick Townsend, who Banks is already envisioning as a key piece of the special teams unit this fall. Townsend is a superb athlete with great hands and the ability to line up all over the field to create matchup nightmares.

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There was little to be confident about in this tight end room heading into the offseason, but Texas has added a potentially elite option as well as found great developments from the youngest players in the room. This will return to being a strength for the team, both in 2025 and going forward.