Oklahoma's starting tight end job seems to be one player’s to lose

Tight end seemed to be the most up-in-the-air position battle for the Oklahoma Sooners ahead of the 2025 season, but there already appears to be a frontrunner after just two days of fall camp.

Rivals' Parker Thune reported from the Sooners' second practice of fall camp on Friday that Kaden Helms got a lot of the first-team reps at tight end.

Kaden Helms reportedly getting first-team reps for Sooners

Entering his redshirt-junior season, there's been a lot of hype for Helms since he got to Norman that he hasn't lived up to yet. He was a consensus four-star recruit in the 2022 class from Bellevue West High School in Nebraska.

Helms redshirted his first year on campus, then also missed all of 2023 because of injury. Last season was the most Helms has played, but even then he missed five games with an injury. He appeared in eight games with no starts, catching only two passes for 19 yards and a touchdown against Maine.

The Sooners' tight end room is full of unproven talent, which is what caused the position to be such an unknown heading into the season. We also haven't seen how new offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle will utilize the position in his system at OU.

Helms and redshirt sophomore Kade McIntyre were the only tight ends the Sooners had returning from last year. McIntyre is just as experienced, though, appearing in only seven games in his career. OU also already had Jaren Kanak, but he played linebacker for the Sooners until switching positions this offseason.

The Sooners added three tight ends from the Transfer Portal in John Locke Jr. (Louisiana Tech), Will Huggins (Pittsburg State) and Carson Kent (Kennesaw State). Only Huggins had experience at the Power Four level, but it was very little before he transferred to Division-II Pitt State. And none were threats in the passing game at their previous stops.

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