Former Texas offensive tackle Sam Cosmi is the first Longhorn off the board in the 2021 NFL Draft.

Cosmi is headed to the nation’s capitol to play for the Washington Football Team after being selected with the 51st overall pick in the second round. The 6-foot-7-inch, 309-pound lineman is the first Texas offensive lineman drafted since 2018, when Connor Williams was picked by the Dallas Cowboys in the second round.

Cosmi was a First Team All-Big 12 selection and CBS Sports/247 Sports Second Team All-American in 2020 as well as a team captain. He started the first eight games of the season for the Longhorns before opting out of the remainder of the year to focus on the NFL Draft after Texas’ loss to Iowa State ended their Big 12 Championship Game hopes. Entering that final game against the Cyclones, Cosmi had allowed only one quarterback hit, one tackle for loss and one sack.

A former three-star recruit and 1,123rd ranked player in the nation out of Humble, Texas, Cosmi redshirted in the 2017 season before playing in 35 games with 34 starts in a three-year career. While NFL Scouts were in love with Cosmi’s size and the athleticism he displayed at his Pro Day, where he ran a 4.84 40-yard dash and a nearly 10-foot broad jump, concerns about his often sloppy technique ultimately caused him to fall out of the first round.

Only the second offensive lineman drafted from Texas since 2008, Cosmi will compete for a starting position at left tackle immediately on a Washington offensive line that ranked 28th in the NFL with 3.1 sacks allowed per game and 26th in rushing yards per game with 99.8. While Cosmi played both right and left tackle at Texas, eight-year veteran Morgan Moses presumably has the right tackle position locked down as the team leader with 80 consecutive starts.

Cosmi will either be protecting longtime journeyman quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who signed with Washington in the offseason, or former undrafted quarterback Taylor Heinicke, who put up a gutsy performance in last season’s NFC Wild Card round.