For our next summer position breakdown for the Oklahoma Sooners, we are going to look at the wide receivers.
Oklahma’s wide receiver corps suffered a significant loss this offseason with the departure of Marvin Mims to the NFL. Mims caught over 1,000 yards and was a huge piece of the offense for the last three seasons. The now Denver Bronco led Oklahoma in receiving yards each of his three years in Norman.
The Sooners also lost Theo Wease, who was fifth in yards last year. The only two players they return in the top six in yardage are Jalil Farooq and Drake Stoops. Neither caught over 500 yards.
While Farooq has talent and showed promise in both the pass and run game, he’s got to take another step this season.
As for Stoops, he’s Mr. Reliable. You know exactly what you’re going to get from the former walk-on.
But the Sooners need someone to step up and be that No. 1 target, whether it’s Farooq, Nic Anderson, Jayden Gibson, or someone new like Andrel Anthony, Brenen Thompson, or Jaquaize Pettaway.
The Sooners have a lot of talent and a lot of speed, but they need that go-to guy. They also have to fix the drop issues they had last season as well.
Jeff Lebby’s offense loves the long ball, and they have the guys to go get it. They just don’t have a lot of proven experience.
At times last season, specifically after the first quarter versus Oklahoma State, the Sooners struggled with separation. That just can’t be an issue again.
Too many times, if teams were physical at the line of scrimmage, the wide receiver group struggled to separate.
But they added new WR coach Emmitt Jones who is well thought of after being at Texas Tech. He brings a lot of experience in the development department and brings an edge to the position group. The hope is he can help with the issues of separation and drops.
This position group has the most questions, and only time will tell how they’ll be answered.
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