Oklahoma’s tight end room is starting over, but it isn’t starting from scratch.
After a 2025 season that produced the program’s best numbers at the position since Mark Andrews went for 958 receiving yards in 2017, the Sooners now turn the page without their top pass-catching tight end. Jaren Kanak, who led OU’s tight ends with 533 receiving yards in 2025 before moving on to the Tennessee Titans, left a big opening behind him. That opening now belongs to a group that looks deeper, older and more varied than the one it replaces.
At the center of it all is new tight ends coach Jason Witten, the former Dallas Cowboys player who inherits a room loaded with fresh faces and plenty of competition. The two most experienced newcomers, redshirt seniors Rocky Beers and Hayden Hansen, are the most likely to set the tone.
Beers arrives at Oklahoma after his best season yet at Colorado State. Before injury cut his year short, he caught 31 passes for 388 yards and seven touchdowns in 2025. He’s now at his fourth school, and his transfer to Norman came alongside fellow Colorado State newcomer Lloyd Avant, who made it clear what kind of tight end OU is getting.
“(Beers is a) physical guy, all-around tight end,” Avant said at OU’s spring media day. “I would say he's a do-it-all on the field, (from) special teams to offense to blocking and running and catching the ball.”
Beers also comes with a familiar Oklahoma connection: he is the brother of former OU women’s basketball star Raegan Beers, now a forward with the Connecticut Sun. Raegan Beers spent two seasons in Norman and piled up plenty of NCAA and league honors before heading to the WNBA.
Hansen brings a different kind of resume, one built on three seasons in the SEC with Florida. In 2025, he totaled 30 catches for 254 yards and two touchdowns. Like Beers, he fits the mold of a tight end who can affect the game in more than one phase, and he’s already been talking about what he sees in Oklahoma’s ground attack.
“I got some news for you guys. (The run game is) here, and it's looking good,” Hansen said during spring practice.
“We're pounding the rock every practice. It's a beautiful thing to see.
… We are moving the rock, and we are doing it well.”
That confidence showed up in the spring game, where Beers and Hansen led the tight ends in receiving yards. Beers finished with four catches for 65 yards, while Hansen added three receptions for 34 yards.
The rest of the room includes redshirt senior John Locke Jr., redshirt junior Kade McIntyre, redshirt freshman Trynae Washington, sophomore Jack Van Dorselaer and true freshmen Ryder Mix and Tyler Ruxer. With that mix of newcomers and holdovers, Witten says the job is wide open.
“Rocky and Hayden were already signed here when I joined the staff, but I see what the organization saw in those young men,” Witten said at spring media day. “I think they're eager as fifth-year players to take advantage of every opportunity.
So I really like their work ethic, … It’s going to be an open-room competition. I think that's going to bring out the best in our group.”
With Kanak gone, Oklahoma will go into the season with its sixth different starting tight end since 2020.
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