After a final season at Oklahoma that ended with him losing to Oklahoma State in Bedlam, Perrion Winfrey passed on playing in the Sooners’ bowl game and instead chose to focus on preparing himself for the 2022 NFL Draft he was planning to enter. His preparation looks like it’s close to paying off as he’s less than two months away from being drafted into the NFL.
For Winfrey, it’s pretty simple. After dominating the Senior Bowl, the practices included, Winfrey earned MVP honors and has seen his name shoot up draft-eligible prospect rankings.
NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah, one of the premier draft analysts, released his latest top 50 ahead of the NFL draft. Jeremiah and the latest mock drafts agree Perrion Winfrey is a top 50 player.
Winfrey comes in at number 45 in Jeremiah’s latest rankings, which is a stark contrast to Jeremiah’s previous rankings that had Winfrey on the outside looking in the top 50.
Jeremiah had this to say about Winfrey:
Winfrey is a long, athletic interior lineman who plays the game with passion and energy. He is a tough evaluation because of the scheme at Oklahoma. There is a lot of slanting and lateral movement. That results in some penetration and disruption, but it also gets him washed out of a lot of plays. His pad level is too high, but he has the foot quickness to beat blockers and he flashes some power in his hands. He was much more impressive at the Reese’s Senior Bowl. Winfrey was allowed to work up the field and he was pretty dominant, bringing home the game MVP award. In the run game, he has the length to stack and control single blocks, but he needs to improve his awareness versus angle blocks and double teams. Overall, Winfrey isn’t a finished product but he has Pro Bowl potential. – Jeremiah, NFL.com
The defense under Alex Grinch has been questioned before regarding how hard it is to evaluate defensive line players at Oklahoma. That will likely change going forward with the new coaching staff, but Winfrey didn’t have that luxury. Winfrey looked awesome in his role during the Senior Bowl and will look to carry that over thru the rest of the draft process. Next up is the NFL scouting combine next week in Indianapolis.
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