Oklahoma football: Creed Humphrey off the board in Round 2 of NFL Draft
By Chip Rouse
For the first time in four years, no Oklahoma football player was selected on the first night of the NFL Draft.
Not the case, however, in Round 2 of the 2021 NFL Draft, when the Kansa City Chiefs selected Sooner center Creed Humphrey in the second round with the 63rd overall pick, the next to last player selected in the second round.
Most mock drafts had Humphrey going between the 40th and 60th player selected overall. The same mock drafts had former Sooner linebacker Ronnie Perkins targeted in that same range, but the OU defensive end was still waiting to hear his name called as the third round began Friday night.
Humphrey has been the anchor of the OU offensive line as the starter at center the last three seasons. He earned the starting role as a freshman in 2018, and that season the Oklahoma offensive line was recognized as the best in college football and winner of the Joe Moore Award.
The Big 12 Offensive Lineman of the year this past season will become part of a totally remade Kansas City Chiefs offensive line since the Chiefs lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV in February.
Humphrey will be joined on the offensive line in Kansas City by offensive left tackle and former Sooner Orlando Brown, Jr., whom the Chiefs acquired earlier in the week from the Baltimore Ravens.
Pro scouts have had an eye on the Sooner center Humphrey for the past couple seasons, and he probably raised his draft stock with an impressive performance during his OU Pro Day. He turned in a 9-foot, 4-inch broad jump, a 33-inch vertical jump, had 29 repetitions in the bench press and his 40-yard time was 5.09.
Named a third-team All-American in 2020 by the Associated Press, Humphrey started 39 consecutive games for Oklahoma, every game the Sooners played the past three years. He was a second-team AP All-American his sophomore season in 2019. Most impressive is the fact that he did not allow one quarterback sack in all 39 games he played at OU.
The Chiefs now have three former Oklahoma Sooners on the current roster. In addition to Humphrey and Brown, both of whom have joined the team in the past week, Blake “Bulldozer” Bell resigned with the Kansas City during the offseason. Bell, who played at Oklahoma from 2011 to 2014, was a member of the Chiefs in 2019 as a tight end and was with the Dallas Cowboys in the 2020 season before rejoining the Chiefs.
The center position was a particular area of need for Kansas City as the Chiefs prepare for another Super Bowl run in the 2021 season, and Humphrey was one of the highest rated coming out of the college ranks in this draft.