Top 20 NFL Sooners, No. 12: Jammal Brown

Brown came to Oklahoma as a defensive lineman, but he left as one of the best offensive linemen in school history — then backed it up in the NFL.

In the past 20 years, the Oklahoma Sooners have experienced arguably their most productive era ever in the NFL Draft.

From the 2000 to 2019 drafts — the entirety of the Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley years — OU has had 95 players drafted.

Using today’s 7-round comparison, that’s more than any other two-decade era in school history. In the 1970s and ‘80s, OU had 131 players drafted, but only 88 were selected in the first seven rounds.

In the last 20 years, the Sooners have produced some historically good players. Every day leading up to this year’s NFL Draft (April 23-25), SI Sooners presents the Top 20 NFL Sooners of the last 20 years.

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Jammal Brown and Mark Clayton

Looking back, how could Jammal Brown have gone through the 2004 college football season and not win the Outland Trophy?

Being the best blocker on a team with two Heisman Trophy finalists in Jason White and Adrian Peterson — White also won the Heisman in 2003, and Peterson might be the best freshman ever to play college football — Brown winning OU’s fifth Outland was probably a given.

And yet, the 6-foot-6, 318-pound Brown arrived at Oklahoma in 2000 from Lawton MacArthur as a defensive tackle.

Brown was a three-time All-Big 12 right tackle, a two-time All-American and the nation’s most outstanding interior lineman in 2004.

He also became a first-round pick in the NFL Draft, No. 13 overall in 2005, of the New Orleans Saints.

Jammal Brown in New Orleans / New Orleans Saints

He officially logged eight NFL seasons — five with the Saints, three with Washington — but only played six due to season-ending injuries that cost him all of 2009 and all of 2012.

Still, Brown’s pro career burned hot. In the NFL, he moved to left tackle and made the NFL All-Rookie team in 2005, made the Pro Bowl in 2006 and 2008, and his 2006 season was recognized by the Associated Press and the Pro Football Writers Association as being worthy of first-team All-Pro accolades — one of the two best offensive tackles in the entire league.

Jammal Brown in New Orleans

Brown played 85 NFL games (84 starts) but only played in two playoff games. Sadly, Brown missed the entire 2009 season as the Saints won the Super Bowl.

He later became a mentor to Sooner All-American left tackle Orlando Brown (no relation).

But when he got to Oklahoma, he had dreams of being the next Reggie White — an All-State defensive tackle who wrecked shop on opposing offenses.

Maybe having inside information about playing defensive tackle allowed Brown to become so good at blocking when the Sooners switched him to offense in 2001 after his redshirt season.

At OU, Brown started every game at right tackle for three consecutive seasons. In 2003, with Wes Sims bookending the left side, Brown led the Sooners with 127 knockdown blocks and allowed just one quarterback sack. As a senior, he had a team-high 130 knockdowns and didn’t yield even one sack.

Brown remains the last Sooner to win the Outland, joining Jim Weatherall (1951), J.D. Roberts (1953), Lee Roy Selmon (1975) and Greg Roberts (1978).

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Our Top 20 list was chosen by five voters: SI Sooners publisher John Hoover, deputy editor Parker Thune, long-time OU fan and amateur Sooner historian Anthony Jumper, OU school of journalism student Caroline Grace, and OU history and stats expert Steven Smith (aka Blinkin Riley).

The criteria was simple: former Sooners who played at OU during the last 20 years and went on to an NFL career. The rest, i.e, their NFL career, was purely subjective. Players received 20 points for a first-place vote, 19 for second, etc., down to 1 point for 20th. A total of 28 players received votes.

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