Former Oklahoma Sooners tight end Brayden Willis is looking for work again. The San Francisco 49ers waived the 26-year-old on Saturday to promote long snapper Jon Weeks from the practice squad, a roster crunch that arrived after the team had already flown to Australia for Thursday’s season opener against the Rams in Melbourne, via the NFL transaction log.
For Sooners fans who watched Willis grind through five seasons in Norman, the move is familiar more than shocking. San Francisco drafted him in the seventh round in 2023 (247th overall) and kept cycling him between the practice squad and the 53-man roster.
He appeared in six games in 2025 and has suited up in more than 20 regular-season games as a pro, almost entirely on special teams. He still has not recorded an NFL reception.
That limited role never matched what he was in crimson and cream. Willis played 58 games and started 25 from 2018 through 2022. He finished with 75 catches for 998 yards and 13 touchdowns.
His fifth year was the peak: 39 receptions, 514 yards and a team-high seven scores, good for second-team All-Big 12 honors and a Don Key Award for excellence on and off the field. He even took wildcat snaps against Texas when Dillon Gabriel was hurt and completed a touchdown pass earlier that season.
Those were the snaps that sold scouts on a 6-foot-4, 240-pound tight end who could block, catch and survive in a crowded room.
Keeping him on the initial 53 this summer looked like insurance while George Kittle recovered from an Achilles tear. Once the 49ers grew confident Kittle would be available in Week 1, Willis became the odd man out for a specialist.
Reports after the cut said he cleared waivers and could still return to San Francisco’s practice squad if the club wants him in Melbourne. If another team claims him, the next flight is even longer.
From an Oklahoma vantage point, the story is less about one transaction and more about the usual NFL math. Plenty of Sooners last four years in the league only as depth and special-teams pieces.
Willis did that in a scheme built around Kittle. He was never going to be the featured tight end in Santa Clara. He was the extra body who knew the playbook and could cover a kick.
That still counts as a career in a league that cuts players after 16-hour flights. Norman remembers the 78-yard catch at TCU, the two-score games and the fifth-year breakout.
The next chapter is whoever needs a tight end who already knows how to live on the bubble. For a former Sooner, that has always been the job.
