David Stone
David Stone was a five-star for a reason, and his sophomore year showed it -- eight tackles for loss and six batted passes from the interior. He re-signed as the cornerstone of Oklahoma's defensive line. The breakout is becoming a star.
David Stone was a five-star for a reason, and his sophomore year showed it — eight tackles for loss and six batted passes from the interior. He re-signed as the cornerstone of Oklahoma's defensive line. The breakout is becoming a star.
Stone's 2025 was the leap Oklahoma recruited him for: 42 tackles, eight tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and six pass breakups, a midseason All-America nod and a 76.4 PFF grade — disruption from a spot where disruption is hard to come by. At 6-3, 310, the former five-star re-signed for his junior year as the anchor of Brent Venables' front, with the program adding around him. The forward stakes are a first-round interior trajectory: the quickness and the production are established, and 2026 is about turning a breakout into a dominant, every-snap season. He's the kind of interior force a defense's whole front is built around.
How he plays
Stone is a penetrating, disruptive interior lineman rather than a two-gap space-eater. The tell is in his stat line: six pass breakups and eight tackles for loss are quickness-and-get-off numbers, the marks of a tackle who beats blockers into the backfield and gets his hands into throwing lanes. At 6-3, 310 with five-star athleticism, he wins with first-step explosion and active hands. He's a three-technique-style penetrator who collapses the pocket from the inside — the hardest pressure for an offense to account for — and the development is simply turning flashes of dominance into a full season of it.
The story
Stone's 2025 was the leap Oklahoma recruited him for: 42 tackles, eight tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and six pass breakups, a midseason All-America nod and a 76.4 PFF grade -- disruption from a spot where disruption is hard to come by. At 6-3, 310, the former five-star re-signed for his junior year as the anchor of Brent Venables' front, with the program adding around him. The forward stakes are a first-round interior trajectory: the quickness and the production are established, and 2026 is about turning a breakout into a dominant, every-snap season. He's the kind of interior force a defense's whole front is built around.
Career Arc
2025 snapshot
Season context · Team result + system
Splits & context
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Brent Venables
Awards
Player Standing · 17 rungs
Tier 2 · StarterR06 · Starter
Starter. Tackle volume for the position at a full-time starter's level.
Career stats
Signature game
SIGNATURE GAME · Week 10 · 2025
W 33–27
at Tennessee
2 TOT
A wire-to-wire battle — won by 6 on the road.
How he plays
Play style
Stone is a penetrating, disruptive interior lineman rather than a two-gap space-eater. The tell is in his stat line: six pass breakups and eight tackles for loss are quickness-and-get-off numbers, the marks of a tackle who beats blockers into the backfield and gets his hands into throwing lanes. At 6-3, 310 with five-star athleticism, he wins with first-step explosion and active hands. He's a three-technique-style penetrator who collapses the pocket from the inside -- the hardest pressure for an offense to account for -- and the development is simply turning flashes of dominance into a full season of it.
Our classifier reads him the same way: controls the point of attack and doesn't move.
2026 Outlook
Oklahoma
2026 Depth chart
Projected starter
Defensive line · Oklahoma
Returning around him
- 7 Oklahoma players drafted to NFL
- Transfer portal: -13 net (16 in / 29 out)
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
Oklahoma · Last season: 10-3 (AP #8) · Talent rank #14 · 2026 recruiting class #15
Perception vs tape
Stone's 2025 was the leap Oklahoma recruited him for: 42 tackles, eight tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and six pass breakups, a midseason All-America nod and a 76.4 PFF grade -- disruption from a spot where disruption is hard to come by. At 6-3, 310, the former five-star re-signed for his junior year as the anchor of Brent Venables' front, with the program adding around him.
Read the story →DNA match
Player DNA
Nose Anchor
The heaviest frame on the interior. Sack production is intentionally not the point of this profile.
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Tahj Sykes’s 2020 season.
Matches Tahj on
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a sophomore, his production profile tracks closest to Ian Jeffries's sophomore season at Purdue (2025).
Matches Ian on
Differs from Ian on
Background
Season GP-GS UT AT TOTAL TFL SACKS INT FF FR PBU QBH 2024 13-0 2 4 6 2.0-14 1.0-10 0 0 0 0 0 2025 13-2 16 26 42 8.0-22 1.5-10 0 0 0 1 4 Career 26-2 18 30 48 10.0-36 2.5-20 0 0 0 1 4 2025 (OKLAHOMA) Named to SEC Fall Academic Honor Roll ... played in all 13 games and made two starts at defensive t...