The One Who Got Away: De’Zhaun Stribling

Oklahoma State has a long history of excellent receivers going back to Hart Lee Dykes playing in the 1980s before throwing the football was truly in vogue.

From Dykes to Rashaun Woods to Adarius Bowman to Dez Bryant to Justin Blackmon to James Washington to Tylan Wallace — the list goes on and on. But there’s a guy raising a lot of eyebrows in an NFL training camp right now who spent two seasons at OSU before closing his career out in the SEC.

De’Zhaun Stribling was taken in the second round of this year’s NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers after spending last season catching 55 passes for 811 yards and six touchdowns at Ole Miss.

This week, a 49ers beat writer said Stribling is “already the best wide receiver on the team. Full stop.”

And here is what ESPN’s Nick Wagoner wrote about the former Cowboy:

“Stribling continues to produce at a high level regardless of who he is on the field with and against. The size and speed are obvious but there’s a maturity and understanding of the game that his teammates and coaches continue to notice that are helping him adapt quickly.”

But don’t just take reporters’ words for it. Here’s what San Fran coach Kyle Shanahan said on Tuesday of Stribling’s growing confidence:

“The more he’s out there, the more he’ll get confident,” Shanahan said. “We truly believe he’s made of the right stuff. We know his ability and now it’s about him going through a lot of situations that he hasn’t been through, that I expect him to fail a number of times in practice, but he’s good enough and made of the right stuff, that he’ll eventually get through it. You seen a lot of those today and hopefully we can keep doing that more and more so he’s ready in Week 1.”

A new connection 😏 pic.twitter.com/uA9KxXbroJ

— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) August 11, 2026

Stribling spent two seasons in Stillwater, transferring over from Washington State ahead of the 2023 campaign. It was evident early that Stribling was good, but his season in the spotlight in Stillwater came as the quarterback position started to sputter.

He played in just four games during the 2023 season before suffering a thumb injury. When he returned in 2024, Stribling had a team-high 882 receiving yards on 52 catches in a season where Alan Bowman, Garret Rangel and Maealiuaki Smith all played some significant snaps at quarterback and the Cowboys finished 3-9.

My most prominent Stribling memory was him catching a touchdown from Smith against Texas Tech and punting the ball into the stands, seemingly out of frustration with how the year went. It was Smith’s first career touchdown pass, and Stribling had to get on social media to try to track down the ball to give to him.

Given how that season went (and the hindsight of 2025 season), it’s hard to blame Stribling for making the move to play under Lane Kiffin in Oxford, but in this world where you’re not exactly sure who claims players who transferred, it could sting a touch watching Stribling excel as an NFL player wondering what could have been.