Oklahoma football: Where is the ‘Belldozer’ today?

It wasn’t that long ago that the Oklahoma football player the fans fondly referred to as the “Belldozer” was throwing, carrying and catching the ball for Sooner teams that combined for 39 wins and just 13 losses.

Blake Bell was a 6-foot, 6-inch, 250-pound player who began his time at Oklahoma as a five-star quarterback recruit and ended his college career in Norman four years later as a tight end.

Highly recruited as a pro-style quarterback out of Bishop Carroll High School in Wichita, Kansas, Bell acquired his “Belldozer” moniker because of the way then Sooner head coach Bob Stoops utilized him in short-yardage situations, particularly in his first two seasons, as a backup to starter Landry Jones.

Stoops like to bring Bell in the game, using his size, strength and running ability to move the chains or put the ball in the end zone when the Sooners needed just one or two yards. More times than not, the Belldozer would pick up the necessary yardage.

Bell played in 31 games at quarterback for Oklahoma, eight of them as a starter. His eight starts were all in his junior season in 2013, when he shared the starting role with freshman redshirt freshman Trevor Knight.

At the end of his junior season. Bell was faced with a challenging decision: Should he stay and be content as a backup quarterback, or transfer. It was then that the OU coaches began talking too him about converting to tight end. In retrospect, it was the best decision he could have made as far as extending his football career.

The position change might not have been as surprising as it first seemed, however. For one thing, Bell had the prototypical body type and hand skills to play tight end. For another, if the former Sooner quarterback was going to have any chance of playing in the NFL, it was almost a certainty it wasn’t going to be as a quarterback.

There was also a family connection that made the decision to convert to tight end a bit easier. Bell’s dad, Mark, was a tight end for eight NFL seasons, with the Indianapolis Colts and Seattle Seahawks.

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The changeover paid off for the younger Bell, who was a fourth round selection by the San Francisco 49ers in the 2015 NFL Draft (the 114th player taken overall in that year’s draft). He was the fifth tight end selected in the 2015 draft.

Bell played two seasons in San Francisco. He played in a total of 27 games for the 49ers, including five starts, and caught 19 passes for 271 yards. The former OU star signed with the Minnesota Vikings for the 2017 seasons, where he played sparingly. This past season, he was with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Jaguars released Bell after last season. Just when it appeared that his NFL career might be coming to an end, it was reported this week that the Kansas City Chiefs had signed the former OU Sooner. Bell will have the opportunity to make the roster of the team his uncle, Mike Bell, played for in a 12-year career as a defensive end (1979-91).

The Chiefs are looking to add tight-end depth behind All-Pro Travis Kelce.

Bell was one of six Oklahoma Sooners selected in the 2015 NFL Draft and one of 385 OU players taken all-time in the 83-year history of the NFL Draft (the first NFL Draft was held in 1936). According to the OU athletic department, only three other college programs have had more players selected in the NFL Draft.

As of the first of this month, 31 former Oklahoma players, including the Belldozer, remain active in the NFL.