Sunday brought a mixed bag for Oklahoma alums in the NFL, with one rookie’s breakout season cut short and several former Sooners making their mark in key games.
The toughest blow came for Gracen Halton, whose season ended in San Francisco’s 38-17 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. The former Oklahoma defensive tackle and NFL rookie suffered a broken ankle in the victory. Halton, whom the 49ers selected in the fourth round of the 2026 NFL Draft, had been one of the league’s most productive rookie defenders before the injury.
Through eight games, six of them starts, Halton piled up 15 total tackles, nine solo tackles, five tackles for loss, two sacks, a forced fumble and a scoop-and-score touchdown. His NFL start was trending fast, and now he’ll spend the rest of the year working back toward the 2027 season. San Francisco remains atop the NFC standings at 7-1.
Nik Bonitto also delivered a game-changing play for Denver in the Broncos’ 26-21 win over the Carolina Panthers. With 1:24 left, the former Oklahoma edge rusher got to Bryce Young, forced the fumble and then recovered it himself after a brief scramble for the ball.
Denver then ran the ball three straight times, picked up a first down and closed out the six-point win. Bonitto added another tackle for loss to go with the strip sack.
Bonitto is in his fifth season with the Broncos, and his NFL résumé already stacks up: 138 tackles, 44 tackles for loss and 37 sacks over his first four years, plus two Pro Bowl selections. Before becoming one of the league’s top pass rushers, he spent four years in Norman from 2018 to 2021 and earned All-American honors twice.
The nightcap featured another Oklahoma-on-Oklahoma matchup, this one at quarterback, as Baker Mayfield and Caleb Williams met when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers played the Chicago Bears. Chicago came out on top 27-24 after Williams led a game-winning drive in a back-and-forth primetime game.
Both quarterbacks had rough stretches with turnovers. Williams threw four interceptions, while Mayfield was picked off twice.
Even so, each left his imprint on the game. Mayfield helped Tampa Bay erase a 14-0 deficit and kept the offense moving in the second half, then ran in the two-point conversion to tie the game with 2:51 remaining.
Williams finished with 279 yards and two touchdowns, and on the final drive he hit Colston Loveland for a 38-yard gain that set up the winning field goal.
The Bears improved to 7-2 with the victory, while the Buccaneers fell to 3-6.
In Other News...
Sooners Could Land An Early Recruiting Boost Fans Will Notice
A potential early recruiting spark is starting to take shape for Oklahoma as the Sooners wait on a few key 2028 names who could help shape the next wave of the roster. Kamieon Compton-Nero, one of the top prospects in Oklahoma, is expected to announce his college decision on Nov. 13, with Oklahoma in the mix alongside Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Alabama and SMU. For a program that always has to balance regional priorities with national competition, getting in early on a player like that matters.
The momentum does not stop there, either. Recruiting reports and insider predictions have Oklahoma projected to land edge rusher Keoni Snipes, a four-star recruit from Alabama, while the Sooners are also still battling for offensive tackle Lincoln Faalafi, another highly ranked 2028 prospect out of California. None of those decisions are final yet, but the combination of local interest, national reach and analyst buzz is the kind of early-cycle attention that can give fans a real reason to keep an eye on the recruiting trail. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma May Need More Than A New OC This Offseason
Oklahomas offseason search is already taking shape around two of the most important jobs on the roster, with the Sooners needing a new offensive coordinator and a new starting quarterback after recent staff changes and eligibility issues. That combination has pushed the conversation beyond simply finding a play-caller and into the broader question of how the next offense will be built, especially after a previous package-deal approach with coordinators and quarterbacks did not deliver the way the program hoped.
Among the names tied to the opening are Mitch Dahlen at Oregon State, Kevin Decker at Memphis and Rob Ezell at Wake Forest, each with a quarterback connection and some level of offensive success attached to his background. For Oklahoma, the appeal is obvious: the next hire may need to bring more than a scheme, because the Sooners are looking for stability at the position that drives everything else, and the wrong pairing could leave them searching again before the plan ever has a chance to settle in. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahomas Road Win May Have Revealed A New Offensive Spark
Oklahomas trip to Florida came with more than just the usual road-game pressure. Offensive coordinator Jason Witten had already been working through the challenges of the Sooners season while trying to build a stronger rapport with quarterback John Mateer, and that effort showed up in a performance that looked far more connected than the unit had at times earlier in the year. The offense found a rhythm, and a 20-play touchdown drive stood out as the kind of sustained march that can change the feel of a game and maybe even a season.
Witten and Mateer both came away sounding encouraged by how their working relationship is developing, which matters for a team still searching for consistency. For Oklahoma, the bigger question now is whether that road win was just a good night or the start of something more stable on offense. If the Sooners can keep pairing Wittens structure with Mateers comfort in the system, this could be the kind of spark that carries beyond one afternoon in Gainesville. [Read more 🡒]