Delarrin
Turner-Yell.
Delarrin
Turner-Yell.
Oklahoma· 5'10"· 197 lb· 4.47s 40
Turner-Yell is a 200-pound safety who plays fastest going forward. Oklahoma used him in the box and as a rotating single-high defender, and his best snaps come with his eyes in the backfield: he triggers the moment a run shows, takes a clean angle and arrives with more force than the frame suggests. Three straight seasons above 50 tackles came from that trigger.
In coverage he is a zone defender who reads the quarterback well and breaks on throws in front of him, but the change of direction is average and he can be stressed in man against slot receivers. He also brought real special-teams value as a gunner and cover man. The signature is tackling volume and downhill aggression rather than range on the back end.
Single-high or quarters structure that keeps a safety near the line in run support and asks him to play zone with his eyes on the quarterback.
Year 1: core special-teams player and third safety in dime packages. Ceiling: starting strong safety in a defense that keeps him within eight yards of the ball.
A man-heavy scheme that travels its safeties with tight ends and slot receivers across the formation on every down.
His roster value is decided by the kicking game before the defense ever gets a vote.
Delarrin Turner-Yell Oklahoma Highlights
Career reel from his three years starting at safety for the Sooners.
Delarrin Turner-Yell 2019 Highlights | Oklahoma Safety
Breakout 75-tackle season showing the downhill trigger and alley fits.
Duo Film Session: Pat Fields & Delarrin Turner-Yell - Oklahoma (2019) vs Oklahoma State
Every-snap film session against a rivalry spread offense, coverage reps included.
Turner-Yell came out of Hempstead, Texas as a three-star recruit and started three years at safety for Oklahoma, which in the Lincoln Riley era meant a lot of snaps in space against Big 12 spread offenses. At 5-foot-10 and 197 pounds with a 4.47 forty, he is undersized for a box role and short of the length teams want on the back end, but he never played small.
The production was consistent: 75 tackles in 2019, 50 with an interception he returned 42 yards in 2020, and 53 with three interceptions in 2021 for second-team All-Big 12 honors. The tape shows a willing striker who fills fits and finishes, plus a reliable core special-teams player. The flags were positional. He is not a true single-high safety because the deep range and recovery speed are only adequate, he is not big enough to live in the box full time, and the tackling technique includes too many shoulder attempts that let ball carriers through.
The board saw a Day 3 special-teams contributor and third safety — the kind of pick that makes a 53-man roster on core-four value while a staff figures out whether the coverage ceiling is real. Denver taking him 152nd overall was exactly that bet, with no expectation of a starting job in year one.
- 01
Downhill trigger
diagnoses run action quickly from depth and closes on the alley with urgency, the reason he cleared 50 tackles in each of his last three seasons.
- 02
Tackling volume
willing to put his face in a fit against bigger backs and rarely avoids contact, which is what kept him on the field in the Big 12.
- 03
Ball production in 2021
three interceptions as a senior showed he reads the quarterback's eyes in zone and can finish the plays he breaks on.
- 04
Special teams value
a proven gunner and cover man whose speed and aggression translate directly to the kicking game at the next level.
- 05
Experience and durability
a three-year starter in a conference full of spread passing attacks, with a large body of snaps against high-tempo offenses.
- 01
Size for the role
at 5-foot-10 and 197 pounds he is undersized to live in the box full time and gets washed out by tight ends and pulling linemen.
- 02
Deep range
his recovery speed and angles from the middle of the field are adequate rather than special, which limits him as a true single-high safety.
- 03
Man coverage
average change of direction shows up against slot receivers on option routes, where he is late out of his break and gives up separation.
- 04
Tackling technique
too many shoulder attempts instead of wrapping, leading to missed fits in space against backs who can make one defender miss.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.47sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- 122inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Oklahoma | — | 12 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2019 | Oklahoma | — | 75 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| 2020 | Oklahoma | 10 | 50 | 0.5 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | Oklahoma | 10 | 53 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Career | — | 20 | 190 | 0.5 | 4 | 6 | 1 |
Tackles, sacks, interceptions and pass breakups taken from ESPN season logs for all four years; the career line is the sum of those seasons. Tackles for loss and games played are published by cfbstats only for 2020-2021 and are left blank elsewhere rather than estimated. cfbstats lists 52 tackles in both 2020 and 2021 against ESPN's 50 and 53 because of differing postseason cutoffs; the ESPN figures are used throughout for internal consistency. Fumble recoveries are not published by either source.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Undersized safety who survives on special teams and fills in as a spot starter when injuries hit.
Downhill safety who turns run-support instincts into a full-time starting role near the line of scrimmage.
Late-round safety whose defensive snaps never arrive and whose career becomes a practice-squad cycle.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Denver used him the way the evaluation said it would. He appeared in 14 games as a rookie in 2022, almost entirely on special teams, and recovered two fumbles. He was working his way into the defensive rotation in 2023 when he tore an ACL in Week 17 against the Chargers and went on injured reserve on January 4, 2024. He opened the 2024 season on the physically unable to perform list and missed the entire year. Denver waived him at cuts in August 2025 and re-signed him to the practice squad; he was elevated for Week 16, hurt his knee in that game and landed on the practice squad injured list. Four years after the pick he has 42 career tackles, one pass breakup and two fumble recoveries.
The retrospective is more about health than about evaluation. The special-teams floor was real and he was on the roster for three seasons on that value, but the knee injuries erased the window in which a third safety normally proves he can defend. Nothing on the college tape suggested a starter, and nothing in the NFL contradicted that; the ACL simply removed the chance to find out what the coverage ceiling was.