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With all the comings and goings associated with this current Oregon Duck football off-season, it’s easy to pass by the fact that Oregon has some very special players still on the roster and ready to take off to the next level under head coach Dan Lanning.
Three Ducks were recently named by Pro Football Focus as among those top returning players among their respective positions. Two are those three are on the defensive side of the ball, which should make Lanning relax just a tiny bit as Oregon will face Georgia of all teams in the 2022 opener.
Here are the players that PFF thinks Oregon fans should be excited about:
OL TJ Bass
There were a lot of questions surrounding the Oregon offense in 2021 from the quarterback play, wide receiver depth, and Travis Dye having to step up in CJ Verdell’s absence due to injury. But there weren’t many questions concerning the offensive line, despite the mixing-and-matching along the front with bumps and bruises.
Those five up front, whichever five players were able to take the field, managed to plug away and help Dye to a career season and protect mobile quarterback Anthony Brown. Returning on that line in 2022 will be senior TJ Bass, who PFF rated as a Top 30 overall player in the nation. This is what they had to say about Bass:
Bass pivoted from guard to tackle midway through his 2021 campaign. While the 2020 top-25 ranked JUCO recruit experienced some volatility in pass protection, his standout run-blocking remained. Bass finished with a 90.5 run-block grade for the 2021 season and ranked top 30 among all Power Five offensive linemen regardless of position in negatively and positively graded run play rate — the latter is something only four others accomplished for the year. And it’s not like Bass was a liability in pass protection, either, as he allowed only 14 pressures en route a 74.0 pass-blocking grade for the season.
Up Next: Brandon Dorlus