We got a nice taste of spring football over the past week in Eugene with the Oregon Ducks taking the field for a pair of practices before the students went on a two-week spring break, pausing football activities until April 4th.
While we patiently wait for practices to resume, I want to continue our in-depth look at some of the position battles on the roster for Dan Lanning and the rest of the coaching staff to observe over the coming weeks. While nothing will be finalized after spring ball concludes, it will give us all a good chance to look at where some people stand going into the summer months before fall camp starts.
We’ve already looked closely at the offensive line for the Ducks, as well as the wide receivers, cornerbacks, and linebackers. Let’s continue our deep dive by turning our focus again to the defensive secondary, this time parsing through the handful of candidates to take over as the starting safeties for the Ducks.
It’s important to note that while in the traditional sense of football, you have two safeties on the field; free safety and strong safety. However, in the new scheme that Lanning runs, Oregon will also generally deploy a nickel package, where a third safety comes onto the field to play alongside a boundary safety and field safety.
With that being said, here are the players who I think will vye for the most playing time at the safety position this season,