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.
