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Oklahoma's Delarrin Turner-Yell Drafted by Denver

The senior safety had another year of eligibility left after three years as a starter at OU, but decided to turn pro and now is a Bronco.

John E. Hoover

Oklahoma's Delarrin Turner-Yell Drafted by Denver
Oklahoma's Delarrin Turner-Yell Drafted by Denver /

Another Oklahoma player is off the board, and the Sooners' streak is alive and well.

Safety Delarrin Turner-Yell was picked Saturday afternoon by the Denver Broncos with the ninth pick in the fifth round — 152nd overall — in the 2022 NFL Draft.

That gave the Sooners four players selected in this year's draft, all on defense — Nik Bonitto, Brian Asamoah and Perrion Winfrey were previously taken — giving OU four players drafted for the 15th year in a row. That streak leads all of college football.

It's the first time since 1984 that OU's first four picks were all on defense, per athletics communications director Mike Houck.

In Denver, Turner-Yell will be reunited with Bonitto, an edge linebacker who was picked Friday by the Broncos with the last pick of the second round.  

Turner-Yell, a senior at OU who had an additional year of eligibility, was a three-year starter for the Sooners before electing to turn pro.

After playing in seven games as a backup during his freshman year in 2018, Turner-Yell made 13 starts in 2019, eight starts in 2020 and 10 more in 2021.

He totaled 191 tackles in his career, which included a career-high 75 (60 solo) as a sophomore. Turner-Yell also made 10 career tackles for loss, had four interceptions (three last season) and broke up six passes.

The 5-foot-10, 197-pound Turner-Yell, a 3-star prospect out of Hempstead, TX, ran his 40 in 4.47 seconds at the NFL Scouting Combine in March, showing teams that he had physical athleticism to go with a body of work at OU.

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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.

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