Oklahoma GM Jim Nagy on his players having NFL futures: ‘Sunday money’ trumps ‘Saturday money’

Oklahoma football general manager Jim Nagy is hoping that the players who join the program have aspirations to play in the NFL. While speaking with On3’s J.D. PicKell, Nagy was asked about how he determines which players to add who have talent but also fit the team’s culture. “The guys that we recruit at Oklahoma should have NFL futures,” Jim Nagy said. “If they come in, they put in the work, they allow themselves to be developed, Sunday money is always going to trump Saturday money. “If that’s the end goal is to play in the National Football League… I don’t expect a guy to take half as much money to come to OU than another school. But if you see the big picture and you feel like you’re in the building, and you love the coaches, and you see the development and the track record of what Coach [Brent] Venables has put in the league, there needs to be value in that.” [ $19.99 gets you a FULL year of On3 | Rivals national coverage ] This year, Oklahoma had seven players selected in the NFL Draft. The highest draft pick was defensive lineman R Mason Thomas, who was selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the second round. The seven players selected in the draft was an increase from 2025, as just two Sooners heard their name. Jim Nagy off to a strong start at Oklahoma A big reason more Oklahoma players were drafted this year is how they finished the 2025 season. The Sooners went 10-2 in the regular season and clinched a spot in the College Football Playoff. They lost to Alabama in the first round. Nagy is very familiar with the NFL, as he was previously the executive director of the Senior Bowl. Under his guidance in 2024, the Senior Bowl had 110 selections in the draft. Nagy became Oklahoma’s GM last year. The Sooners were so impressed with Nagy after the 2025 season, they signed him to a four-year contract extension earlier this year. “It was critical,” OU athletics director Roger Denny told George Stoia of SoonerScoop. “You see what they’re doing; the results speak for themselves. But the thing that folks don’t necessarily see is the way he and his staff have come in and really integrated themselves so seamlessly with our coaching staff, and when you combine the work they’re doing on the evaluation and negotiation and the transactional side of it along with the work that our coaches do recruiting, it’s really a tremendous advantage for us. And we want to preserve that advantage as long as we can.”