Despite ranking third on OU’s roster with 5.5 sacks and 11.5 tackles for loss last season, Perrion Winfrey felt he could've done better, but it wasn’t under his control.
“I feel like I played out of position over my time at Oklahoma,” Winfrey said at the NFL Combine on Friday. “... Whatever my team needed, I was willing to do.”
DT Perrion Winfrey: “I feel like I played out of position over my time at Oklahoma…whatever my team needed, I was willing to do.”He said he hates giving credit to OL but Creed Humphrey was the best blocker he faced in his life.
— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) March 4, 2022
It’s not the first time the 6-foot-4, 303-pound lineman has questioned OU’s defensive positioning. On the Oklahoma Breakdown podcast with Teddy Lehman and Gabe Ikard on Feb. 14, Winfrey said former Sooners defensive coordinator Alex Grinch was a good coach at preparing his players for games, but the defense wasn’t positioned for its strengths.
“There’s no reason we weren’t attacking people 24-7,” Winfrey said on the podcast. “There’s no reason why we have to run stunts in games.”
The former Iowa Western Junior College transfer, who joined Grinch’s defense ahead of the 2020 season, spent most of the 2021 season at nose tackle. The placement was perplexing to Winfrey.
“It was just confusing because it was like, as a defensive coordinator, I got respect for Grinch, but you’re supposed to mold your defensive scheme around your players,” Winfrey also said on the podcast. “You’re not supposed to try to force a scheme on players that it doesn’t fit.”
Also during the combine media event on Friday morning, Winfrey added that former OU interior offensive lineman Creed Humphrey, who was the highest-graded NFL rookie by Pro Football Focus last season, was the toughest blocker he’d ever faced. Although, Winfrey said he hated giving credit to an opposing lineman.
Winfrey was listed at No. 45 by NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah’s latest top-50 big board for the draft. The former Sooners defender was also given a 6.19 grade by the NFL, which slots him into the “good backup with the chance to develop into starter” tier.
The Maywood, Illinois, native was the MVP of the Reese’s Senior Bowl after garnering two sacks and three tackles for loss against other NFL hopefuls in Mobile, Alabama.
