Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Our first mock draft roundup of the season has the Vikings selecting 12 different players
Mock draft season is upon us and that means our mock draft roundup is back!
What we do every week is track the mainstream outlets mock drafts and aggregate how many times a player gets selected. Last season, we tallied up 173 mock drafts and only 10 of them were on offense. This season could end up being much of the same.
We will track them and try to determine trends and patterns, along with giving my own analysis on how they could fit with the Minnesota Vikings
Christian Gonzalez goes off the board early in the latest USA TODAY mock draft for 2023.
Most everyone knew that Oregon getting corner Christian Gonzalez via the transfer portal out of Colorado was going to be a good thing for the Duck defense. But most probably didn’t know exactly how good it would turn out to be.
Gonzalez was one of the best corners in the country in the 2022 season and his decision to come to Eugene is going to earn him a lot of money in the NFL next season and beyond.
In the latest mock draft from USA TODAY, Gonzalez is going to be a first-round pick to the Washington Commanders. According to the article from our friends at DraftWire.com, Gonzalez is the first of two Pac-12 first-rounders in the next NFL draft process.
The deadline for players to enter the NFL Draft is on January 16. There are a lot of Oregon Ducks with a decision to make.
As we wrap up our coverage of the 2022 Oregon Ducks football season, it’s time to start looking forward and imagining what the future could bring. The outlook for the Ducks is definitely bright, and a lot of premier talent is returning to Eugene for the 2023 season, headlined by quarterback Bo Nix.
While a couple of notable players are coming back for one more year, there are a lot of guys who are either declaring for the 2023 NFL Draft or out of remaining eligibility, forced to end their collegiate careers.
There are several players that have NFL draft decisions to make as either underclassmen or who still have a year of college eligibility left.
Players that are expected to go in the first couple of rounds of the 2023 NFL draft are more than likely gone, but there are others that are mid-to-late round projections that have to take a hard look in the mirror and decide what they want to do about their future.
In order to keep everything straight and easy to follow along with, we’ve created an NFL Draft tracker for Oregon players who are considering heading to the next level, or who have already made a decision. The deadline for players to declare for the draft is January 16, so expect a lot of news to come out over the next week or so.
As we roll towards the 2023 NFL Draft, a handful of Ducks are on the radar for ESPN’s Mel Kiper.
Every young football player dreamed of seeing his name on a certain list: Mel Kiper Jr.’s draft board.
ESPN hired the self-proclaimed draft expert in 1984 and since then, thousands of future NFL players wanted to see their names on that board.
Here in 2022, things aren’t all that different from nearly 40 years ago. Kiper has published his Top 25 draft prospects on ESPN.com and while only one Duck made the list, several others were put in the “just missed” category. The 2023 NFL draft should be eventful with many Pac-12 players itching to make the jump into the professional ranks.
Oregon finished the season with a 9-3 record and will play North Carolina in the Holiday Bowl Dec. 28. Here are the Ducks that were mentioned in Kiper’s thorough article.
The Oregon Ducks will be big time players in the NCAA transfer portal after adding Bo Nix, Christian Gonzalez, and others last season.
December 5 not only kicks off the tenure of new Oregon Ducks offensive coordinator Will Stein, it also marks the beginning of the transfer portal window for college football.
The NCAA transfer portal has transformed college football in a significant way, with players having far more freedom and autonomy to look for new opportunities each and every season, and allows teams to build almost entirely new rosters each year.
For the Ducks, it helped secure an incredible season from Auburn transfer Bo Nix, while running backs Noah Whittington and Bucky Irving were major contributors on offense and Christian Gonzalez was a star on defense.
Coach Dan Lanning made it clear during a press conference on Sunday evening that his team will once again look hard at players in the portal this offseason – and no position is off limits for additions.
“We’re going to look to enhance our program in every facet, every opportunity that we get to make our program better,” Lanning said. “The goal is to find good people that fit the characteristics that we’re looking for in our program, regardless of just position, you know, and certainly you’ll look for some positions specific pieces, but I’m not going to limit our search to just a couple positions. We’re going to look for guys that make our product better and that fit our culture as we move forward.”
Oregon already saw Gonzalez depart for the NFL while linebacker Justin Flowe tossed his name in the portal, so it would not be a shock to see Lanning and his staff prioritize impact upgrades on the defensive side of the ball.
Of course, the future of Bo Nix is a huge storyline for Oregon this offseason as well, and could result in another high profile quarterback addition if Nix decides to move on.
Updates on transfer additions, and subtractions, will be available all winter at Ducks Wire:
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Christian Gonzalez will be leaving the Ducks after one season, declaring for the NFL Draft.
It was an expected announcement, but one that Oregon Ducks fans dreaded to see nonetheless.
On Sunday morning, Ducks’ standout cornerback Christian Gonzalez officially declared for the NFL Draft, ending his career at Oregon after just one season.
What a season it was.
Gonzalez came to Eugene as a transfer from the Colorado Buffaloes and instantly slotted in as the No. 1 cornerback for the Ducks. In 12 games, Gonzalez had 4 total interceptions and 7 PBU’s, adding 50 total tackles. The best game of his season came on the road against his former team, where Gonzalez had two interceptions with 77 return yards.
Gonzalez has seen his name rise up the NFL draft boards after this stellar season in Eugene, and is projected as a top-10 draft pick in some areas, and a sure-fire first-round pick nearly everywhere. He will more than likely join the class of former Ducks to be taken in the first round later this spring.
Thank you lord 💚🦆#ProDucks pic.twitter.com/DFXKxqZlVv
— Gonzo (@chrisgonzo28) December 4, 2022
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Despite the struggles in 2022, it is a group of secondary players that lead the Ducks in PFF grades after the season.
It was an up-and-down season for the Oregon defense in 2022. The Ducks struggled as a team and individually to the new scheme Dan Lanning and his coordinators Tosh Lupoi and Matt Powledge installed.
But to no surprise, Christian Gonzalez was one of the Ducks superstars on the defensive end of the ball. But to some surprise, safety Bryan Addison was just a little bit better, according to the PFF rating system. Addison was Oregon’s best cover guy and it wasn’t even close. His rating was nearly five points better than Gonzalez and that’s what put Addison’s overall defensive rating over the top.
While there were some highlights, there were some disappointments.
Noah Sewell stands out. Although his overall rating was 0.2 points better than last season, the Duck linebacker played almost 300 less snaps this season. Sewell’s run defense was seven points less and his pass rush rating went from 88.6 to just 73.5.
As a team overall, the Ducks’ defensive rating went from 74.6 in 2021 to 79.0 in 2022 under Lanning and his staff. Check out the top 10 defensive players in 2022, according to PFF.
Oregon’s defense didn’t quite play to the level that we expected under Dan Lanning. Here’s where they rank nationally in some key statistics after the regular season.
Coming into the 2022 season, the Oregon Ducks were expected to be a defensive juggernaut, with players like Noah Sewell, Justin Flowe, Brandon Dorlus, and Christian Gonzalez all thriving under the tutelage of Dan Lanning and Tosh Lupoi.
That wasn’t quite the case, was it?
While there were some high moments throughout the season, for the most part, the Ducks’ defense was extremely frustrating, often underperforming and giving up multitudes of yards through the air while struggling to stop anyone on third down. In the end, Oregon can get a lot better going forward, but the end-of-season numbers don’t paint the picture of success. Here’s where Oregon finished up in the national rankings for some key statistics in 2022.
Oregon head coach Dan Lanning had plenty to say after the Ducks’ 49-10 win at Colorado.
This game wasn’t expected to be close, and the final product lived up to expectations.
Down a few of their more important players on both offense and defense, the Oregon Ducks traveled to Boulder, Colorado on Saturday and downed the Buffaloes, 49-10, in a convincing win that showed Oregon has much more to offer than we may have previously imagined.
With offensive schemes that dialed up touchdowns for a lineman, and linebacker, and a quarterback on the receiving end, it’s clear that the Ducks were having fun out there. They now stand with an 8-1 record and a good case to move up in the College Football Playoff rankings that come out on Tuesday.
Ahead, they will host the Washington Huskies for the start of a 3-game stretch that will decide whether or not the Ducks get a spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game come December. To say this week is important is an understatement.
After Saturday’s win, head coach Dan Lanning met with media members to discuss the victory, and start looking ahead to Washington. Here are some of his most notable quotes from that press conference.
After 5 games, one of Oregon’s breakout defenders is being projected as a top-10 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
The Oregon Ducks have had some positive momentum when it comes to first-round NFL draft picks over the past several years. From Justin Herbert, to Penei Sewell, to Kayvon Thibodeaux this last spring, Oregon is on a 3-year streak of having a player taken in the top 10. Going into the 2022 season, there was once again some buzz growing in Eugene that a top-10 pick was starting to make himself known on the defense; linebacker Noah Sewell, the younger brother of Penei.
That prediction hasn’t quite come to fruition, but Oregon still has a defender that is now being projected as a top-10 pick in 2023.
Cornerback Christian Gonzalez is making a name for himself early on.
According to Pro Football Focus writer Mike Renner, Gonzalez is one of the best players in the 2023 draft, and will be the first CB taken off of the board. So far this year, Gonzalez — who transferred to the Ducks this season from Colorado — has 15 tackles and 1 interception, giving up 15 catches on 25 targets for 143 total yards. Those stats are inflated a bit by games against the Georgia Bulldogs and Washington State Cougars, but in his three best games, Gonzalez has held his receiver to 6 catches on 14 targets for 34 yards.
It’s clear that Gonzalez is among the best cornerbacks in the Pac-12 and now it’s starting to be apparent that he’s in the conversation for the best in the nation. Where would that land him in the 2023 NFL draft? Take a look at Renner’s mock:
