The 2024 college football season is right around the corner, but some are already looking ahead to next April. That’s when the 2025 NFL Draft will be held, and if you follow football, you know that some analysts cover the draft year-round.
CBS Sports analyst Ryan Wilson released his annual preseason Top 50 Draft Board on Monday, identifying the best pro prospects in college football before the season gets rolling. He has one OU player inside of his top 32.
Oklahoma Sooners linebacker [autotag]Danny Stutsman[/autotag] cracks the first round at No. 28 overall on Wilson’s list. He’s the third-ranked linebacker behind LSU‘s Harold Perkins and Clemson‘s Barrett Carter.
Stutsman’s much anticipated senior season comes after he led the Sooners with 104 tackles in 2023, including 16 for a loss. He had three sacks, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery last year, as well as his pick-six against Tulsa. He also had three pass breakups in coverage.
He only played in a little over eleven games last season and the Sooners were 10-1 in games he started and finished, only losing against Arizona in the Alamo Bowl. His injury early in the the Kansas loss led to him being held out the next week, a loss against Oklahoma State. Those were the only two games OU failed to win during the regular season, and both came right down to the wire.
Stutsman’s presence in the middle of Oklahoma’s defense is huge for head coach [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] and new defensive coordinator/linebackers coach [autotag]Zac Alley[/autotag]. He’s become the heart and soul of the unit and gives OU a chance to make another leap on the defensive side of the ball in 2024.
Heading into the [autotag]SEC[/autotag], the Sooners will need to start putting even more players into the NFL, especially on the defensive side of the ball if they want to keep up in recruiting and the portal. Though the Sooners have produced seven first round picks in the last decade, six of them have come on the offensive side of the ball. Two have come in the last two years, both on the offensive line ([autotag]Anton Harrison[/autotag] in 2023 and [autotag]Tyler Guyton[/autotag] in 2024).
[autotag]Kenneth Murray[/autotag] is the only first-rounder on defense in that time period, all the way back in 2020. The early days of the [autotag]Bob Stoops[/autotag] era, when Venables was the co-defensive coordinator, produced first-rounders on defense on a number of occasions.
Stutsman is trying to be the first to restart that trend, and with another good season this year could find himself selected in the first 32 picks when April rolls around.
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