Heading into last spring, the wide receiver room was arguably the most solid, and most exciting, position group for Oklahoma. This season, the wide receiver room faces a few question marks.
Man, what a difference a year can make.
The Sooners' wide receivers have gone through a complete transformation since last spring. Back then, the Sooners added Deion Burks to a room full of familiar faces that included Nic Anderson, Andrel Anthony, Jalil Farooq and Jayden Gibson for a group that projected to be one of the deepest in the SEC. Instead, the Sooners' top-five options rarely saw the field in one of the worst injury-riddled campaigns in recent memory.
Fortunately for the Sooners, Burks and Gibson are back. But Anderson, Anthony, and Farooq — along with Brenen Thompson, Jacquaize Pettaway and JJ Hester — have headed elsewhere.
That meant that finding wide receivers in the transfer portal was a top priority during the offseason. The Sooners added four receivers — Isaiah Sategna (Arkansas), Keontez Lewis (Southern Illinois), Josiah Martin (California) and Javonnie Gibson (Arkansas Pine-Bluff), who all project to be important contributors in 2025. They also added four-star prospect Elijah Thomas and three-star Emmanuel Choice via the freshman class.
There's still something here with this group, and several young receivers last year got important (and necessary) experience on the field. But there's now a ton of moving pieces, and it'll be on Emmett Jones to put it together.
Here's an overview of the wide receivers heading into spring practices:
(Snap-count data provided by Pro Football Focus)
TWO-DEEP DEPTH CHART PROJECTION
WR-X: Javonnie Gibson, Keontez Lewis
WR-Z: Jayden Gibson, Zion Kearney
WR-Y: Deion Burks, Isaiah Sategna
NOTES
— As the dominoes in the wide receiver room fell after the season, all focus shifted to Burks after an injury-plagued year. Instead, he committed to hanging around for another year.
It's huge, as long as he can stay healthy.
Burks still produced as arguably Oklahoma's best wide receiver despite the injuries, leading the team in touchdowns (3) and finishing third in receptions (31) and yards (245) despite missing seven games. Burks was basically the only reliable option through the first four games.
He also wasn't really given a chance to flash his explosiveness in the open field. His average depth of target (ADOT) was 6.7. Compare that to his first three years at Purdue, when his ADOT was 23.0, 12.2 and 13.9.
So there should be plenty of optimism that an offense steered by Ben Arbuckle and John Mateer should be able to better utilize Burks' skill set. He played 85.5% of his snaps in the slot last season and should slide back into that spot.
— In hindsight, Gibson's season-ending injury he suffered during training camp should've foreshadowed the horrible luck that was coming for the wide receiver room. It was particularly unfortunate for Gibson, who was in line to be an every-game starter.
Assuming he returns to full strength, Gibson should be the favorite to start on the perimeter. He still offers elite size and athleticism. Plus, he averaged 26.8 yards per catch in 2023 and was an elite deep threat. That should pair well with Mateer, who averaged 14.0 yards per completion last season and certainly isn't shy about throwing it deep.
— There's a lot of options for the third starting spot. Javonnie Gibson, Carreon and Kearney would give the Sooners another option with elite size. Gibson, in particular, averaged 17.4 yards per reception in 2024 and could offer additional explosiveness.
It's a little difficult to truly analyze Carreon and Kearney, who likely wouldn't have played last year if it hadn't been for injuries. Instead, they both played a ton. They weren't particularly productive (they combined for 18 catches and 217 yards), but that was more a product of OU's dysfunctional passing offense.
— It'll be interesting to see how Lewis, Martin and Sategna fit into things. Sategna has played almost exclusively in the slot, logging nearly 93% of his snaps there last season. Lewis has played primarily on the perimeter, but he did log 17% of his snaps in the slot. But with Burks healthy, there likely won't be a ton of slot snaps to go around.
— Next season will be the second campaign for a ton of receivers: KJ Daniels, Jacob Jordan, Zion Ragins, Carreon and Kearney. They all have veterans in front of them, but standout springs could propel any of them into the conversation for real snaps in 2025.
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