Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks had a spectacular offseason, but you know that by now. With the spring football season beginning, we’re finally getting a look a some of the newest Ducks and how they’ll fit into this season’s team.
On Tuesday, two of Oregon’s most high-profile transfers, wide receiver Evan Stewart and cornerback Jabbar Muhammad, practiced with the team for the first time, after coming to Eugene for the start of the spring term.
In the past few seasons, Oregon has been home to some of the best wide receivers in program history. Troy Franklin became the greatest Ducks receiver ever. Tez Johnson had one the best single seasons in Oregon football history last year.
Evan Stewart is another elite talent, and he has the potential to put his name near Franklin’s over the next few years at Oregon. On Tuesday after practice, Dan Lanning expressed excitement for the arrival of the Texas A&M transfer and shared his thoughts on what Stewart can bring to the team.
“I think speed, catch radius. I think there’s a lot of things that pop off with Evan,” Lanning said. “I think he saw a lot of opportunity here with what we’ve done with our wideouts here in the past over the last few years.
“But you know, he has the skill set to be really, really talented player. We had some coaches that were really familiar with them before as well. That’s certainly paid off.”
In his two seasons at Texas A&M, Stewart caught 91 balls, racked up 1163 receiving yards, and scored 6 TDs. Stewart struggled with injuries during his time as an Aggie and played in only eight games as a sophomore. For that reason, his stat totals aren’t as high as they could be, but his 12.8 career yards per catch are impressive.
It’s unclear how the wide receiver depth chart is going to shake out come fall since the WR room is loaded. Tez Johnson will be back for one more year, joining Traeshon Holden, Gary Bryant and redshirt freshman Jurrion Dickey. With Stewart’s talent, he should be comfortably in the mix. I’d expect him to be one of the top two or three options for Dillon Gabriel this season.
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