Perrion
Winfrey.
Perrion
Winfrey.
Oklahoma· 6'4"· 290 lb· 4.89s 40
Winfrey was a penetrating three-technique in Oklahoma's four-man front, a get-off specialist who won the rep before the guard's second step landed. Out of a wide sprinter stance he fired flat and low, landed his inside hand first, and converted half-a-man leverage into instant backfield depth. On passing downs he was a legitimate interior disruptor rather than a pocket pusher.
The secondary trait was hand violence: a hard arm-over and a club-swim that cleared contact quickly, plus enough lateral quickness to chase down the line. Against the run he was a boom-or-bust penetrator who spilled plays for loss but could be washed when he raced himself out of a gap. The signature was that first step, the fastest in the class.
Attacking one-gap four-man front that lets him fire upfield as a three-technique on passing downs rather than read and react.
Year 1: sub-package interior rusher on 20-25 snaps. Ceiling: every-down three-technique in a penetrating front that hides his run-down inconsistency.
Two-gap 3-4 nose or 5-technique role that asks him to hold the point against doubles and stack blockers before finding the ball.
His value collapses the moment a scheme asks him to be patient instead of fast.
Perrion Winfrey 2021 Highlights | Oklahoma DL | 2022 NFL Draft Prospect
Senior-season reel showing the get-off and the club-swim counter from the three-technique.
Oklahoma Sooners Defensive Lineman Perrion Winfrey Official Junior Year Highlights
First Oklahoma season after the JUCO transfer, with the penetration reps that produced six tackles for loss.
Perrion Winfrey senior bowl highlights
Senior Bowl week in Mobile, the stretch that made him the National team MVP and moved his board placement.
Winfrey entered the 2022 class as a two-year Oklahoma starter with a junior-college backstory: the nation's top JUCO prospect out of Iowa Western, then an immediate starter in the Big 12 and a second-team all-conference pick in both of his Sooner seasons. He was built as a disruptor first, an anchor second, and every evaluation of him started with the explosiveness off the ball.
The production matched the trait in 2021: 11 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks in twelve games, with most of the damage coming on pure win-fast reps rather than scheme-created lanes. Then came Mobile, where he was the most disruptive interior player on the field all week and left as the National team's Senior Bowl MVP, which pushed his stock into Day 2 conversation. The flags were real too: a body that did not always hold up at the point, effort that dipped between flash plays, and a maturity file that teams spent time on.
Boards had him as a top-100 name with a wide range, a first-step rusher whose floor depended on whether he grew into an every-down role. Cleveland moved up through a trade with Houston to take him at 108, betting on the get-off and the Senior Bowl week rather than the down-to-down consistency.
- 01
Elite get-off
Fired off the ball faster than any interior lineman in the class, regularly crossing the guard's face before the second step landed.
- 02
Hand violence
Landed a hard inside hand on contact and followed with a club-swim or arm-over that cleared the blocker quickly and cleanly.
- 03
Backfield disruption
Produced 17.0 tackles for loss across two Oklahoma seasons, a rate that showed the penetration turned into real negative plays.
- 04
Lateral chase
Moved well enough down the line to run plays down from the back side and finish outside his own gap when he read it fast.
- 05
All-star tape
Dominated Senior Bowl week against top competition and left Mobile as the National team MVP, confirming the traits in a neutral setting.
- 01
Inconsistent anchor
Raced himself out of gaps and got displaced by down blocks and doubles when he could not win with the first step.
- 02
Effort dips
Played in flashes rather than in stretches, with plays where he stopped working after the initial rush attempt failed.
- 03
Limited rush plan
Leaned almost entirely on the get-off and one counter, with little to fall back on once a guard timed the snap.
- 04
Off-field file
Teams spent real time on maturity and decision-making questions that put him behind more stable Day 2 interior options.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.89sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Oklahoma | 11 | 19 | 0.5 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2021 | Oklahoma | 12 | 23 | 5.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Career | — | 23 | 42 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
Oklahoma seasons verified against cfbstats (team 522, player 1112809); seasons sum exactly to the career line. Two junior-college seasons at Iowa Western Community College (2018-2019) are not covered by cfbstats and are intentionally excluded rather than estimated. Interceptions and fumble recoveries are not published in the cfbstats defensive splits and are left null.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A rotational interior body who logs snaps for years without ever locking down a starting job.
The realistic ceiling: an explosive interior rusher who grew a counter plan and became a paid every-down three-technique.
Flashy first-step talent whose availability and consistency issues kept him bouncing between rosters.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Cleveland used Winfrey as a rotational interior rusher as a rookie, playing him 342 defensive snaps over 13 games for 22 tackles, half a sack and two passes defensed. It was a reasonable Year 1 usage for a fourth-rounder, but the flash plays never turned into a claim on a bigger role. The 2023 offseason ended his time in Cleveland: he was arrested on a misdemeanor assault charge in April, the case was later dismissed after a pretrial program, and the Browns waived him in July after he was named a suspect in another incident. The Jets signed him to their practice squad that November, he never dressed, and his contract expired. He landed with the UFL's Birmingham Stallions in October 2024 and played his way onto the 2025 All-UFL team, which earned him a Cowboys deal before training camp.
Dallas was the reset that almost worked. A preseason back injury put him on injured reserve for most of 2025, he appeared in one game in Week 16 against the Chargers for 34 snaps and two tackles, and the Cowboys waived him in March 2026. In hindsight the pick was a bet on Senior Bowl week over a season of down-to-down tape, and the traits were never the problem. The availability and the decisions around the football were, and a player with genuine first-step talent has spent four years looking for the roster that fits.