2025 B1G Team Talent Preview: Oregon

Photo by Melinda Meijer/ISI Photos/Getty Images

Welcome to the 15th part in our series looking at the rosters of every Big Ten team as we head ever closer to opening day.

The order is organized by my team talent rankings. For more information on how those numbers came about, check out the intro for the Maryland post

. And while you’re there, go ahead and read the whole thing then come back. We’ll wait for you.

Past Teams

Tier 5— 18. Maryland Terrapins, 17. Purdue Boilermakers

Tier 4— 16. Iowa Hawkeyes, 15. Minnesota Golden Gophers, 14. Northwestern

Wildcats

Tier 3— 13. UCLA Bruins, 12. Illinois Fighting Ilini, 11. Washington Huskies, 10. Rutgers Scarlet Knights, 9. Indiana Hoosiers, 8. Michigan State Spartans, 7. Wisconsin Badgers

Tier 2 — 6. USC Trojans, 5. Nebraska Cornhuskers

(Names in bold are projected starters by Phil Steele. Otherwise, names are listed in order of scoring in the talent ranking system)

Average 247 Composite Rating of Phil Steele Starter: 0.9024 (4th)

Average # of Snaps Played by Phil Steele Starter: 1,009 (3rd)

Average Career PFF grade of Phil Steele Starter: 63.0 (16th)

TOTAL OFFENSE- 1,227 (2nd)

Quarterback- 150 (12th)

Starter- Dante Moore (73)

Reserves- Akili Smith Jr. (54), Austin Novosad (46), Luke Moga (33)

Since the start of the 2019 season there have only been 7 freshmen (true or redshirt) at a power-conference school with a season in which they threw for >7.0 Yards per Attempt, >4.0% Big-Time Throw rate, and >4.0% Turnover-Worthy Play rate with a minimum of 100 dropbacks. That suggests they moved the ball downfield pretty well but took a lot of risks to do so and those risks resulted in interceptions about as often as they did big plays.

Dante Moore while at UCLA was obviously one of them which is why I’m bringing it up. The redshirt freshmen were South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers who is now in discussion as a top-five NFL draft pick and Pitt’s Eli Holstein who is not. The true freshmen were Mississippi State’s Garrett Schrader, Virginia’s Anthony Colandrea, USC’s Jaxson Dart, and USC’s Kedon Slovis.

If you’re looking for hope for Moore at Oregon then you’re obviously clinging to the Sellers and Dart comparisons (although I’m sure almost no one reading this is clinging to any such thing). The Dart comparison makes more sense given their relative rushing abilities (Sellers was 6.0 YPC, Dart 3.7 and Moore 3.1). Dart at USC was more accurate and took fewer sacks than Moore at UCLA but was surrounded by better talent and took fewer shots downfield.

Put it all together and we’ll call it approximately a 1/3rd chance that Moore turns into the QB that Oregon is hoping for given recent historical precedent. Similar to Dart, he is now playing for a team that has a much more QB-friendly system after transferring. I’d argue Moore is upgrading his weapons around him much more than Dart did (ironically, Gary Bryant Jr. was one of Dart’s top receivers at USC and now will be for Moore at Oregon). Despite Moore’s pedigree, there’s not a ton of precedent for players with a true freshman year like Moore had eventually QB-ing a national title contender so I feel fine not putting Moore in that class.

Running Back- 128 (6th)

Starter- Makhi Hughes (78)

Reserves- Noah Whittington (69), Jayden Limar (63), Dierre Hill (54), Jordon Davison (54)

You could certainly argue that Oregon is absolutely loaded at running back but the fact remains that the position only has one career power conference start between all of them. Makhi Hughes was arguably the best G5 back in the country outside of Ashton Jeanty over the last two seasons with 2,776 combined rush yards and 22 rush TDs on 5.3 YPC both years. He is preseason 1st team all-conference for Phil Steele despite Steele not listing him as the starter somehow.

That honor goes to Noah Whittington who is in his 6th year of college ball and was the primary backup last year behind Bucky Irving. Whittington and Irving were the only 2 RBs to finish with at least 100 rushing yards last season for Oregon and Noah has rushed for 13 TDs on 5.4 YPC over 3 seasons with the Ducks. Former local four-star standout Jayden Limar projects as the #3 back despite running for just 71 rushing yards on 25 carries last year (but with 71 receiving yards on 2 catches).

Wide Receiver- 327 (5th)

Starters- Evan Stewart (90), Gary Bryant Jr. (79), Malik Benson (73)

Reserves- Dakorien Moore (58), Jeremiah McClellan (56), Justius Lowe (54), Cooper Perry (54), Jurrion Dickey (51)

There’s obviously an asterisk involved here as Evan Stewart suffered a major knee injury last month and it is possible that he might miss the entire season. However, my policy is to include a player in the rankings unless the school has 100% confirmed they will miss the entire year. Since Stewart’s complete diagnosis and timeline has never been fully confirmed, I’m leaving him on the list for the sake of consistency. But it looks like if he does return it might just be for the postseason. That’s a huge blow for Oregon as Stewart was preseason 2nd team all-conference for Phil Steele even if the former five-star still has yet to have the true breakout year everyone has been predicting for the last several seasons.

Beyond Stewart there’s a lot of raw talent here but not a ton of experience. Gary Bryant Jr. has started 19 career games between USC and Oregon but has the dichotomy of two seasons with 440+ receiving yards and three seasons with fewer than 60 (one of which he redshirted during). Malik Benson has 18 career starts but is already on his 3rd school in 3 years (Alabama to Florida St to Oregon) and has abysmal yards per route run efficiency numbers.

If Oregon is going to compete for another Big Ten title though they’re going to need their young, talented receivers to emerge. Dakorien Moore was the #1 rated WR in the class of 2025 and will be expected to start from day one, especially given Stewart’s injury. He’s not in the Jeremiah Smith class of prospect (no one is) but could easily be a good player from the jump. Former five-star Jurrion Dickey is now on year 3 and still hasn’t done much on the field. Another four former four-stars are in the position group but haven’t lived up to expectations as is tradition for the Ducks’ receivers.

Tight End- 140 (1st)

Starter- Kenyon Sadiq (90)

Reserves- Jamari Johnson (72), Vander Ploog (53), Roger Saleapaga (46)

Here’s a fun blind resume tight end player test for you.

Player A: 92.6% comp, 12.3 yards per rec, 8.0% TD rate, 2.10 yards per route run, 2.4 average depth of target

Player B: 78.9% comp, 15.5 yards per rec, 20.0% TD rate, 2.16 yards per route run, 8.6 average depth of target

Player A is Oregon’s Kenyon Sadiq who caught 25 of 27 targets for 307 yards as a redshirt freshman and the Ducks’ #2 TE option last season. He’s preseason 2nd team all-conference from Phil Steele and is my system’s #1 ranked TE given his pedigree and that production at this point in his career. Player B is Washington’s Decker DeGraaf who put up those numbers as a less heralded true freshman as the #2 TE option on a worse offense.

The average depth of target shows you that each one was used very differently but it will be fascinating to see how the two compare the rest of their careers. Sadiq is legitimately quite good but it’s fair to think there’s a chance DeGraaf will end up better in the long run in college. (I’m generally a fan of The Athletic’s Dane Brugler for NFL draft coverage and Brugler has Sadiq as an early top-20 pick in next year’s draft for what it’s worth).

The depth chart is very unproven behind Sadiq, who has still never started a game. Jamari Johnson comes in from Louisville where he only played 7 games due to injury but was a pretty consistent 2 catches for ~25 yards every game there. Four-star freshmen Vander Ploog (a former UW commit) and Roger Saleapaga will likely fight for the #3 spot.

Offensive Line- 482 (4th)

Starters- Iapani Laloulu (85), Alex Harkey (74), Matthew Bedford (66), Emmanuel Pregnon (66), Douglas Utu (56)

Reserves- Alai Kalaniuvalu (56), Ziayre Addison (56), Zac Stascausky (54), Dave Iuli (53), Isaiah World (52)

(A note that my listed starters here are the 5 highest scorers even if some of them play the same position. If the backup right tackle has a higher rating than the starting left guard, the LG gets bumped to reserves above.)

There may not be a bigger discrepancy between my rankings and popular opinion writ-large than for Oregon OT Isaiah World. It has become extremely in vogue to predict World as a 1st round draft pick next year after he transferred in from Nevada and Phil Steele has him 1st team all-conference. I’ll admit that scouting offensive linemen is not an easy job. But...why exactly?

World was just honorable mention all-Mountain West last year; he didn’t even make the 2nd team there. PFF grading isn’t foolproof and gave him his best pass blocking grade yet in 2024 but World was below average as a freshman and sophomore before merely being good but not great last season in their methodology. I’m willing to admit he could easily wind up being a future 1st round pick at Oregon but I think I’m justified saying there are no numbers that support that conclusion.

Even if World fails to meet expections, this should still be a very good line overall. Phil Steele includes all 5 projected starters on one of his four preseason all-conference teams with LT World and USC LG transfer Emmanuel Pregnon on 1st team, C Iapani Laloulu 2nd team, Texas State RT transfer Alex Harkey 3rd team, and RG Matthew Bedford 4th team.

World, Pregnon, and Bedford have all played at least 2,290 career offensive snaps which puts all of them among the 10 most experienced players in the entire conference. Harkey started his career at Colorado before putting up two good seasons at Texas State earning 3rd team all-Sun Belt last year. The lone returning starter is Iapani Laloulu who quickly became one of the better centers in the Big Ten by the end of last season replacing draft pick Jackson Powers-Johnson. Matthew Bedford was on the team last year and has 39 career starts from his time at Indiana but played only 2 snaps last season so I’m not calling his a returning starter.

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

TOTAL DEFENSE- 1,161 (5th)

Defensive Line- 227 (5th)

Starters- Bear Alexander (84), A’mauri Washington (76)

Reserves- Matthew Johnson (51), Tionne Gray (42), Xadavien Sims (42), Jericho Johnson (42)

Last year Oregon went into the portal and picked up a pair of premium starters at DT with eventual 1st round pick Derrick Harmon plus 3rd round pick Jamaree Caldwell. This year the Ducks are relying on their development so we’ll so how that goes. The lone transfer add is Bear Alexander who never lived up to the promise he showed as a true freshman at Georgia while at USC. The pass rush skills are undeniable with 32 QB pressures in 2023 for the Trojans but concerns about consistent effort and the decision to quit the team and redshirt before transferring last year mean there are legitimate questions about his ability to meaningfully contribute towards winning.

Beside and behind Alexander are the results of Oregon’s dominant recruiting over the past several seasons. The other 6 players on the depth chart are all former four-star underclassmen recruited by Oregon out of high school. A’mauri Washington is the only one of the bunch to play even 25 career defensive snaps so far after playing the #3 DT role last season. A 36% missed tackle rate is a red flag for Washington but at 320 lb he has all the physical traits to demand a double team. The rest of the group are true or redshirt freshmen and Oregon will need at least one of them to emerge as a force in their first meaningful playing time to get where they want to go.

Edge Rushers- 250 (2nd)

Starters- Matayo Uiagalelei (93), Teitum Tuioti (79)

Reserves- Nasir Wyatt (54), Tobi Haastrup (52), Aydin Breland (51), Blake Purchase (48), Elijah Rushing (46)

This is a very similar spot to the defensive tackles except for Oregon has more established options as starters on the edge. Both Uiagalelei and Tuioti started for most of last season and finished 4th and 2nd on the team in QB pressures respectively. Brugler projects Matayo as a top-ten draft pick this spring while Phil Steele has him preseason 2nd team all-conference. The production has been very similar between the two (Tuioti- 44 QB pressure, 8 sacks; Uiagalelei- 43 pressures, 11 sacks) who were in the same recruiting class but Uiagalelei was the much higher rated recruit and has higher athletic upside.

There’s once again just about nothing behind the starters in terms of experience but plenty in terms of raw talent. The six players behind Tuioti (the lone three-star of the group) were all at least a 0.908 in the 247 Sports composite coming out of high school. Only Blake Purchase, who was that 0.908, has played more than 50 career defensive snaps.

Linebackers- 181 (11th)

Starters- Devon Jackson (81), Gavin Nix (54)

Reserves- Bryce Boettcher (52), Brayden Platt (40), Dylan Williams (39), Kamar Mothudi (39)

Oregon’s team is largely made up of former elite recruits but they do have one clear development win with Bryce Boettcher. The former walk-on is entering his 6th season of college football this fall but was one of the best LBs in the country last year per PFF grading. He’s preseason 1st team all-conference* for Phil Steele but lags way behind at a 52 in my system. What gives? Well first he obviously gets dragged down by his sub-0.80 recruiting pedigree. He also didn’t see the field until he was a redshirt junior so his total playing time is less than you’d expect for someone his age. There’s a good chance he way outplays this rating.

The likely starter alongside Boettcher is Devon Jackson who was Oregon’s #3 LB last season and an extremely effective blitzer in limited opportunities. The next four on the depth chart are once again all former four-star recruits who have combined for 5 total career defensive snaps.

*Although Steele bizarrely includes 4 LB on each of his teams so it’s almost more difficult to not have a LB make one of his preseason all-conference teams.

Cornerbacks- 313 (5th)

Starters- Jahlil Florence (84), Theran Johnson (75), Jadon Canady (68)

Reserves- Na’eem Offord (58), Brandon Finney (58), Dorian Brew (57), Sione Laulea (53), Daylen Austin (49), Ify Obidegwu (42)

We get more Phil Steele confusion here as he doesn’t list Theran Johnson as a starter but includes him as preseason 2nd team all-conference. Johnson almost certainly will start after doing that 25 times for Northwestern over the past two seasons. They also imported another likely starter from the portal this offseason in Jadon Canady who went from Tulane to Ole Miss and now to the Ducks. He started 11 games in the SEC last year and had 8 pass break-ups.

My system still likes Jahlil Florence who has 9 career starts through three seasons with Oregon but missed almost all of last year with a knee injury. He has a chance to still compete for a starting job if healthy again. Beyond Florence there’s just a bunch of elite recruiting talent who, stop me if you’ve heard this one, haven’t played a lot. Another 7 corners beyond my system’s top three are all former four-star or better recruits who have played no more than 100 career snaps led by five-star true freshman Na’eem Offord.

Safeties- 190 (14th)

Starters- Dillon Thieneman (79), Trey McNutt (58)

Reserves- Peyton Woodyard (56), Aaron Flowers (50), Kingston Lopa (42)

There are a lot of similarities between Dillon Thieneman and Washington’s Tacario Davis. Both players were all-conference standouts as former three-star recruits earlier in their careers, had one relatively down season, and now have transferred hoping to get back to form. Thieneman was an instant star as a true freshman at Purdue with 6 INTs. That dropped to 0 last season when everything went wrong for the Boilermakers. His ceiling is as high as anyone’s which is why Phil Steele has him preseason 1st team all-conference but the safety position is so loaded in the Big Ten this year that he could play somewhere in between those two seasons and still only be the 10th best safety in the conference.

Once again there is no experienced depth whatsoever behind the starter. Last year’s #4 safety Peyton Woodyard played just 58 snaps as a true freshman after flipping from Alabama. Another pair of four-star true freshmen Aaron Flowers and Kingston Lopa are also returning after playing limited snaps. Competing with Woodyard for the other starting spot is incoming five-star freshman Trey McNutt. I’d bet heavily on Oregon having better than the 14th best group of safeties but all it takes is for at least one of the four true/redshirt freshmen to completely bust and suddenly this is an incredibly thin group.

OVERALL TEAM- 2,388 (4th)

The narrative that Husky fans have espoused ever since Dan Lanning’s first game is that he may pile up top-ranked recruiting classes but ultimately has to rely on transfers to achieve success. Fully 8 of Oregon’s top 12 defenders in snaps played last year and 7 of the top 9 on offense were transfers. It’s hard to argue with the results given that Oregon was undefeated and the #1 team in the country entering the College Football Playoff before getting vaporized by eventual champion Ohio State. This year looks like it will take on a different tone.

Does Oregon still have a lot of transfers who are projected to start? Sure. I’m expecting roughly 9 of 22 starters to come from new transfer portal imports which is down from 15+ last year. But the big difference from previous seasons is that especially on the defense there are very few backups with any meaningful college experience. That should be expected from a team that lost most of its production to the NFL draft but in prior years Oregon would’ve backfilled not just select starting spots but also doubled or tripled up so the backups were experienced former starters too. That’s not the case this year with a ton of true or redshirt freshmen needed to fill meaningful roles.

Only Ohio State has a group of #2s on the depth chart with more raw talent than the Ducks. The average Oregon backup has a 0.9078 rating in the 247 Sports Composite. Only 5 players on the entire Washington roster were that highly rated out of HS. If Lanning and company can do even an average job of developing that talent from here on out then the Ducks should be a perennial top 10 team without much additional effort needed.

The big question mark though is the quarterback position. Dante Moore was not good as a true freshman at UCLA. He had a year to sit behind Dillon Gabriel and learn the system but he also is playing with a much worse wide receiver group than Gabriel or Nix had given the injury to Evan Stewart. The offensive line should be light years better than what Moore had in Westwood but Moore could be significantly better and still only be good rather than a conference player of the year contender which is the new standard in Eugene.

Even if Moore doesn’t emerge as an all-conference candidate, it’s difficult to imagine Oregon dropping far enough to miss a 12-team College Football Playoff. The non-conference would be challenging for many teams with home games against preseason FCS #1 Montana State plus a pair of black and orange OSUs (Oregon State and Oklahoma State). But the Ducks manage to miss the more dangerous OSU (Ohio State) in the conference slate plus also avoid Michigan.

A road game to Penn State with the Nittany Lions coming off a bye should be the only game in which they’ll be clear underdogs. Road trips to Iowa and Washington are no gimmes if Oregon is closer to #15 overall in the AP Poll than #5 entering those contests and home games against Indiana, Wisconsin, and USC aren’t cakewalks even if Oregon should be favored in all by 7-14 points. It’s hard to see the Ducks entering the final in Husky Stadium any worse than 9-2 though and if Indiana/Iowa take a step back while USC continues to flounder in mediocrity under Lincoln Riley? Then Oregon could potentially be merely a top 20-25 team in SP+ and still cruise to 10+ wins.

*************************

Top-10 Players (with position rank and overall conference rank)

1. ED Matayo Uiagalelei, 93 (3rd, 17th)
2. TE Kenyon Sadiq, 90 (1st, 27th)
3. WR Evan Stewart, 90 (4th, 28th)
4. OL Iapani Laloulu, 85 (4th, 58th)
5. CB Jahlil Florence, 84 (10th, 63rd)
6. DL Bear Alexander*, 84 (5th, 67th)
7. LB Devon Jackson, 81 (7th, 84th)
8. ED Teitum Tuioti, 79 (13th, 99th)
9. S Dillon Thieneman*, 79 (15th, 100th)
10. WR Gary Bryant Jr., 79 (11th, 110th)

*Incoming transfer

More from uwdawgpound.com:

• Husky Coaches Are Busy On The Recruiting Trail
• Friday Dots: Will the Huskies find snaps for all their running backs?
• Husky Softball pulls off legendary comeback to finish statement sweep at Utah
• Dots: Comeback Kids
• Friday Dots: Who are the Huskies’ top draft prospects for 2018?
• Dots: Ross inks Rookie deal with Bengals
• Dots: Madden-ing