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NFL Draft: Oklahoma WR Drake Stoops Signs FA Contract with Los Angeles Rams

Stoops' agent, Kelli Masters, broke the news on Twitter Saturday after he went undrafted in the 2024 NFL Draft.

John E. Hoover

Drake Stoops
Drake Stoops / Bryan Terry-USA TODAY Sports
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Sooner Nation always knew Drake Stoops was tough.

But now it’s official: Stoops is Ram Tough.

Stoops, Oklahoma’s sixth-year senior wide receiver, was signed by the Los Angeles Rams to a free agent contract on Saturday night after going undrafted in the 2024 NFL Draft.

The news was announced by his agent, local sports agent Kelli Masters.

Stoops grew up around the program and came to OU as a walk-on from Norman North High School. He endeared himself to OU fans immediately because he’s the son of College Football Hall of Fame coach Bob Stoops, the program’s winningest head coach from 1999-2016.

But as Stoops’ career at OU progressed, he became an all-time fan favorite for other reasons — like his reliability catching the football, his willingness to make hard catches in traffic, his toughness to fight through contact, and his performance in crunch time.

He’ll go down in history for scoring the game-winning touchdown in overtime of the Sooners’ big comeback against Texas in 2020, when he caught a 25-yard touchdown from Spencer Rattler on the first play of the fourth overtime, giving OU a pulsating 53-45 win.

"Drake was a high-producing receiver," OU coach Brent Venables said last Saturday. "It didn’t matter what you asked that guy to do, whether that was beat someone on an over route, get open on an underneath crosser, something like that. Drake would make all the competitive plays." 

The 5-foot-10, 190-pound Stoops ranks tied for ninth in school history with 164 career catches, stands 12th with 1,876 receiving yards, and is tied for 11th with 17 touchdown receptions.

After catching 39 passes for 393 yards and three TDs in 2022, Stoops enjoyed a breakout season in 2023, ranking second in the Big 12 Conference with 84 receptions and 10 touchdown grabs while ranking fifth with 962 receiving yards and earning a first-team spot on the All-Big 12 team.

After running the 40 in 4.67 seconds at his pro day, Stoops is the first of several Sooners expected to be signed over the weekend as NFL teams fill out their free agent needs.

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John E. Hoover

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.