With the 2023 football season in the rearview mirror, let's continue our positional review series with tight ends.

Coming into the season, the Sooners had production to fill at tight end after 2022 starter Brayden Willis left for the NFL Draft. In his final season, Willis accounted for 39 receptions, 514 yards and seven touchdowns. The 2023 season was not as pretty for Oklahoma at tight end. Despite bringing Austin Stogner, Blake Smith and Hamp Fay in from the transfer portal, production still dropped significantly.

In 2023, OU tight ends accounted for 20 receptions, 252 yards and two touchdowns. Let's see what went right and wrong in 2023:

(Note: All snap-count data and performances grades are provided by Pro Football Focus. PFF assigns both game and season-long grades for individual players on a 0-100 scale; 90-99 is considered elite, 80-89 good, 70-79 above average, 60-69 average, 50-59 below average, 0-49 poor).

Austin Stogner: 23 targets, 17 receptions, 196 yards, 1 touchdown

Blake Smith: 4 targets, 2 receptions, 30 yards, 1 touchdown

Kade McIntyre: 1 target, 1 reception, 26 yards, 0 touchdowns

(Note: This list does not include players who saw fewer than 10 snaps)

Austin Stogner — 791 snaps (50.0 performance grade)

*Blake Smith — 92 snaps (60.0)

Josh Fanuiel — 56 snaps (53.7)

Kade McIntyre— 21 snaps (71.3 grade)

*Jason Llewellyn — 10 snaps (47.7)

* Entered the transfer portal

- While everyone was excited to have Austin Stogner back in Norman, the homecoming season did not go as planned. Stogner had his worst collegiate season through PFF Grades at 50.0, while also tying a career-low in touchdowns (1) and having his worst season as a pass blocker (34.8). Despite playing significantly more snaps than McIntyre and Smith, he was never able to build a consistent connection with quarterback Dillon Gabriel. With Stogner's collegiate career now over, he concludes his four seasons in Norman with 64 receptions for 950 yards and nine touchdowns.

-Although most of the attention went to Stogner's return, former Texas A&M transfer Blake Smith was Rivals' highest-rated acquisition that the Sooners made at tight end in 2023. Smith started the season strong, posting a PFF Grade of 62.3 through the first two weeks while having two receptions for 30 yards and a touchdown. Since then, he only saw the field in six games and had just two targets in those outings. After a disappointing season in Norman, he officially entered the transfer portal on January 2nd. He finished his lone season at OU with 28 routes ran.

- Despite only playing in two games this season, true-freshman Kade McIntyre showed signs of optimism early in the season. After turning his one target of the 2023 season into a 26-yard gain (against Arkansas State in Week 1), the former three-star did not see action again until the final week of the season against TCU due to a broken hand. On the year, McIntyre graded out as OU's highest-rated tight end at 71.3.

- With Oklahoma having a clear issue at tight end in 2023, the Sooners' brought in transfer tight end Bauer Sharp from Southeastern Louisiana. During the 2023 season, Sharp graded out at an 80.6 and had 279 yards with three touchdowns. Joining him in Norman will be 2023 signee Davon Mitchell. The four-star from Los Alamitos, California was Rivals' No. 9 ranked tight end in 2023.

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