Will Oklahoma’s Tight Ends be More Productive in Red Zone in 2026?

NORMAN — As the field shrinks, the tight end grows — or at least he should.

The Sooners overhauled their tight end room during the offseason, and they desperately need more red-zone production out of their big targets in 2026.

Last year, Kaden Helms — who transferred out after the season — was the only tight end to log a receiving touchdown. And that touchdown wasn’t particularly impactful, as it came in Oklahoma’s 44-0 rout of Kent State on Oct. 4.

The tight end room will come into the 2026 season in the wake of a drastic remodeling.

Oklahoma, of course, hired Jason Witten to replace Joe Jon Finley as its tight ends coach in January.

OU added three tight ends — Hayden Hansen, Rocky Beers and Jack Van Dorselaer — from the transfer portal after the 2025 season. The Sooners signed tight ends, Tyler Ruxer and Ryder Mix, as part of their 2026 recruiting class, too.

Hansen’s frame is the largest of the group of newcomers, as he is listed at 6-8 and 268 pounds. Beers is 6-5, Van Dorselaer and Ruxer are both 6-4 and Mix is 6-3.

On paper, the Sooners’ size at tight end should give them an advantage.

“It kind of looked like a basketball team out there a few times,” OU offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle said after the spring game on April 18.

Arbuckle, though, believes that the 2026 tight ends are more than simply tall and large.

He thinks they have the necessary skills to make the Sooners’ offense lethal in the red zone.

“Big bodies are hard to come by — they're at a premium,” Arbuckle said. “Our playmakers have shown that they can make tough competitive catches, tough competitive plays or put their hand in the ground and fit up on a linebacker at the second level.”

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Hansen and Beers both used their physical gifts to their advantage during the spring game, as they combined for 99 receiving yards on seven catches. Ruxer caught one pass for five yards, Van Dorselaer played but didn’t record any stats and Mix missed the game due to an injury that he sustained during his senior year of high school.

It’s a small sample size, but the group’s athleticism, football IQ and physicality impressed Arbuckle during the intrasquad scrimmage.

“It’s a testament to those guys,” Arbuckle said. “Credit to them, their coaches and just the work that they've been putting in.”

Beers and Hansen came to Oklahoma with loads of experience, and the two of them showed their abilities to cause havoc near the goal line.

Beers logged seven touchdown receptions for Colorado State — his third program in five years — in 2025. Hansen, who spent three years at Florida before transferring, combined for five touchdowns during his time in Gainesville.

“Obviously, size helps,” quarterback John Mateer said. “They just go up and get the ball, which is fun and it makes it easier on me.”

To Mateer’s point, Oklahoma’s offense sputtered at times in 2025.

The Sooners surpassed 30 points in just one of their final eight games of the season. Mateer individually struggled during that stretch, too, as he completed just 59.4 percent of his passes for 1,670 yards, eight touchdowns and eight interceptions in the last eight contests.

The tight end can provide a safety net for a struggling quarterback or offense as a whole. And Arbuckle is confident that the position group can be a lifeline for the unit, particularly when the Sooners are threatening to score.

“It's hard to keep those guys off the field, especially in that red area where everything just gets condensed and a little bit tighter,” Arbuckle said. “The bigger the body you can have out there makes a quarterback… it at least just makes them feel a little bit better.”

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