Drake Stoops, an undrafted free agent, signs with the Los Angeles Rams
On the last day of the NFL Draft, Drake Stoops was not selected; but, on Saturday night, he accepted a free agent contract with the Los Angeles Rams.
Drake Stoop’s career hasn’t followed any traditional path. This encompasses his initial move into the NFL.
According to his agent, Kelli Masters, six years after he began his collegiate career as a walk-on at Oklahoma, Stoops decided to sign with the Los Angeles Rams as an undrafted free agent.
On Saturday, the last day of the NFL Draft, Stoops was not selected. However, he quickly took a free agent contract with the Rams after the seventh round was over.
The next chapter in the unlikely career of Stoops, who started as a walk-on receiver and was more well-known for being the son of renowned Sooners coach Bob Stoops, is his signing with the Rams. But in the six years since he arrived on the University of Oklahoma campus as a freshman, Stoops has made an effort to distance himself from his father’s shadow and establish a reputation for himself with the Sooners.
After graduating from Norman North High School, he turned down scholarship offers from Ohio, Western Kentucky, Air Force, Iowa, and Memphis, opting instead to walk on with the program he knew so well from watching his father’s teams. Rather than fading into obscurity as the walk-on son of the most successful coach in program history, Stoops created his own legacy as a member of the Sooners.
He was a walk-on for three years, seeing the field in a supporting position for the offense. Following the team’s spring game at Owen Field in 2021, Stoops was awarded a scholarship on the field by the end of spring practice. Following a pandemic-shortened 2020 season in which he caught 15 passes for 219 yards and two touchdowns, the scholarship was awarded.
During his last two seasons at Oklahoma, Stoops experienced a significant boost in his responsibility. He started ten of the thirteen games for the Sooners in 2022 and caught 39 passes for 393 yards and three scores. He came back for a sixth season and made the most of it in the fall of last year, finishing with the most complete campaign of his career and securing a spot among the Big 12’s best wide receivers. Last season, Stoops led the Sooners in all three categories as he caught 84 passes for 962 yards and 10 touchdowns, ranking second in catches, touchdowns, and receiving yards while ending fifth in the Big 12. Only ten players nationwide had at least 82 receptions and ten touchdowns in the previous campaign, including him.
Last season, Stoops was named to the first team of the Big 12 and was a finalist for the Burlsworth Trophy, which goes to the best player in the country who started out as a walk-on. Pro Football Focus ranks him as the 46th-highest graded receiver in the country at the end of the season with an overall rating of 81.5, which includes the 23rd-best receiving mark (84.4) among FBS wideouts. With 84 receptions on 107 targets last season, his 78.5% catch percentage ranked seventh out of all FBS receivers with at least 80 targets.
At 5-foot-10 and with a 4.67-second 40-yard dash, Stoops may not have the conventional size and speed for the slot, but he still stands out at the position because of his short-area agility and ability to get open. During last month’s Oklahoma Pro Day, Stoops performed exceptionally well in position exercises and agility tests. His 20-yard shuttle time of 4.25 seconds and his 3-cone drill time of 7.01 seconds would have placed him in the top ten among wide receivers at the NFL Combine; his short-shuttle time would have been seventh and his 3-cone time eighth, respectively.
Following Pro Day, Stoops remarked, “When you put on the tape or watch me, I have good football speed.” “I show good speed there, which I think matters the most.”
While some players with similar small builds may have gone unnoticed, Stoops has attempted to emulate them. Players such as Hunter Renfrow (a fifth-round pick in 2019), Danny Amendola (an undrafted free agent), and Julian Edelman (a seventh-round pick in 2009) are examples of such players. Additionally, his test results were better than those of former Texas Tech wide receiver Wes Welker, who was not selected in the 2004 NFL Draft but went on to play in the league for twelve years.
Last month, Stoops stated, “In the end, all I need is an opportunity.”
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