Tag: CJ Verdell

Green and Yellow Fireworks: Some of the best Oregon Duck highlights in the 21st century

What better way to celebrate the 4th of July than with an Oregon Ducks firework show?

Who doesn’t love a good fireworks show?

On the 4th of July, it is an American tradition to get together with friends and family and celebrate independence by lighting things on fire and watching them explode in the sky.

While you prepare for those festivities to begin on Tuesday night, we wanted to offer some fireworks of our own — some Oregon Duck fireworks.

The past couple of decades in Eugene have been incredibly entertaining. With the rise to national prominence for Oregon football, and the Chip Kelly blur offense that took the college football world by storm, the Ducks saw themselves one of the biggest fan favorites across the nation this century. Go ahead and add in Marcus Mariota’s Heisman season, the enthralling career of Sabrina Ionescu, and the deep tournament runs made by both basketball teams in March.

It’s safe to say that the past 23 years have provided a ton of highlights. I want to bring them to the surface and give you all a fireworks show to start your holiday.

Of course, there are going to be many plays that I missed throughout this all. To every player and every play that did not get mentioned, I apologize. If you have any favorite firework-worthy plays that didn’t get mentioned, comment below and let me know.

Without further ado, let the firework show begin.

Oregon adds Minnesota running back Mar’Keise Irving to roster

Mar’Keise Irving, Minnesota’s second-leading rusher, is transferring to Oregon in the fall.

Oregon’s running back depth chart just became a lot deeper.

Former Minnesota Golden Gopher tailback Mar’Keise Irving announced via Twitter that he will be transferring to Oregon this coming season.

Irving, the 5-foot-10, 190-pounder from Chicago, led Minnesota with 966 all-purpose yards as a freshman. He was the Big Ten Freshman of the Week in Week 1.

He gained 699 yards and averaged 5.3 yards per carry and scored four times on the ground.

The Ducks needed some depth at the tailback as they were going to go into the 2022 season with a lot of talent, but a lot of inexperience as well with Sean Dollars, Byron Cardwell, and Noah Whittington on the roster. Those three. now Irving, will try to make up for the loss left by CJ Verdell and  Travis Dye.

Oregon RB CJ Verdell signed by Indianapolis as undrafted free agent

CJ Verdell wasn’t drafted, but he signed with the Indianapolis Colts as a free agent.

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He didn’t hear his name called during the 2022 NFL Draft, but that doesn’t mean that CJ Verdell won’t get a chance to prove himself at the next level.

Now that the draft is over, Verdell has been signed by the Indianapolis Colts as an undrafted free agent. He will now go through training camp with the Colts and work to earn a roster spot going into the fall.

Though the dream is to get drafted, obviously, there are a number of highly successful NFL players who have gone the route of a UDFA in order to find a way into the league. Most notably, guys like Wes Welker, Tony Romo, London Fletcher, and Michael Bennett all had legendary careers after going undrafted.

In his four seasons with the Ducks, Verdell had 3,539 total yards and 30 touchdowns. Verdell currently sits at No. 5 on Oregon’s list of all-time career rushers. He had his career cut short due to a leg injury suffered in 2021 but still leaves Eugene as one of the best backs to play for the Ducks.

With Indianapolis, Verdell will have an opportunity to possibly follow in the footsteps as greats such as Edgerrin James and Eric Dickerson.

Contact/Follow us @Ducks_Wire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes, and opinion.

Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today.

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IF DRAFTED, DELETE EVERYTHING ABOVE THIS.

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Oregon Ducks wide receiver Devon Williams is heading to the next level after the BLANK drafted in in the BLANK round with the No. BLANK overall pick.

Williams is the BLANK Duck to be selected in the 2022 NFL Draft. The first was Kayvon Thibodeaux, who went No. 5 overall, followed by BLANK.

In his four seasons at the college level, Verdell had 3,539 total yards and 30 touchdowns. Verdell currently sits at No. 5 on Oregon’s list of all-time career rushers. He had his career cut short due to a leg injury suffered in 2021, but still leaves Eugene as one of the best backs to play for the Ducks.

Now as a member of the BLANK, Wright will …

Contact/Follow us @Ducks_Wire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes, and opinion.

Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today.

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Official 40-yard dash times and results for current and former Ducks in Oregon’s Pro Day

Official measurements and 40-times have been released for the Oregon Ducks Pro Day.

For the most part, a pro day in college football is broken down into two chunks, one where you take the heights and weights of players, measure their jumps, and time how fast they can run. The other half is spent with the players going through drills, throwing and catching footballs, and showing what they can do in between whistles.

You can decide which portion is more meaningful to tell whether or not a player can succeed at the next level.

While the game-flow section may be more beneficial for scouts, the takeaways are often subjective and stray away from data points. The measurements, on the other hand, are nothing but data points, and often what we take heading into the NFL draft.

For the Oregon Ducks, the official “stats” were released on Friday night. Here is how the 11 current and former players who participated fared on Friday afternoon:

CJ Verdell’s leg injury against Stanford far worse than previous known

CJ Verdell went into detail about how serious his leg injury was this last season, which is far worse than we previously imagined.

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When Oregon Ducks running back CJ Verdell left the Stanford game with an apparent leg injury, it was assumed it was bad.

Now we know exactly how bad it really was.

In his NFL Combine interview session, Verdell revealed that his leg was messed up in more ways than one.

Verdell sustained a fractured left fibula and a dislocated ankle. He had surgery on that following Monday and according to the former Oregon running back, the doctors have cleared him to fully participate in the combine workouts and hopefully improve his draft stock.

Before the injury, Verdell could have been a borderline first-round NFL draft pick and most likely a second-rounder. With a good combine, Verdell can definitely restore his stock.

At Oregon, Verdell finished his career with 2,940 yards and 30 touchdowns (26 rushing, four receiving).

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Kayvon Thibodeaux leads six Ducks to be invited to the NFL combine

Six former Oregon football players have been invited to participate in the NFL combine event in Indianapolis March 1-7.

The Oregon Ducks football program has been through a lot over the course of the last two or three months, so a little bit of normalcy is welcomed.

It’s that time for the NFL combine and six Ducks have been invited to participate in the event that will be held in Indianapolis March 1-7. Led by defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux, the Ducks have a nice group of offensive and defensive stars hoping to improve their draft stock.

Among those looking to show what he can do is running back CJ Verdell. The all-conference performer was most likely a second-round draft pick before he injured his knee. Now with the combine, Verdell can show scouts that he is fully recovered and able to help a team win immediately.

What is the biggest question for the Oregon Ducks’ offense in 2022?

Excitement for the Ducks’ upcoming season is certainly high, but Oregon still has a lot of questions to answer going forward.

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So far, it has been an incredibly eventful offseason for the Oregon Ducks.

The last couple of months have seen one head coach leave, a new one get hired, a blowout loss in the Alamo Bowl, and the signing of a top-25 recruiting class that inspired some confidence in the new coaching staff under Dan Lanning.

While fans may feel confident about the future of Oregon football — and rightfully so — there are still a ton of questions that need to be answered about this team going forward. A lot of those questions will start to be answered this spring, like who the starting quarterback would be — Bo Nix or Ty Thompson? — or how Lanning’s dominant defense will translate to Eugene.

When previewing the 2022 season, ESPN recently took a swing at figuring out the biggest question mark for all top-25 teams going into the offseason. For the Ducks, that question is in the offensive backfield.

Biggest Question: Running Game

There was a time when it seemed at least possible the Ducks could see running backs CJ Verdell and Travis Dye share the backfield again in 2022. Then, of course, Dye announced he was transferring to USC and Verdell declared for the NFL draft, leaving the Ducks short on established names. Byron Cardwell figures to be the next man up, having rushed for 417 yards as a freshman last season, but with a new coaching staff, it’s fair to wonder how it will end up shaking out. Seven McGee is the only other returning running back who had any carries last season (14 carries for 61 yards).

You can figure that Sean Dollars will be a big part of the running game, as he is expected to be fully healthy after missing last season with a knee injury. On top of that, the Ducks just added 4-star RB Jordan James in the 2022 recruiting class, and while he likely won’t be ready for a prominent role in the offense, there’s a good chance that he can contribute.

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Over the next few months, there seems to be a good chance that Oregon looks to the transfer portal to try and fill that need in the backfield as well. There are a number of talented RBs looking for a new school as they finish out their careers, and the Ducks seem like a great landing spot for any player searching for one last place to play before making a leap to the NFL.

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Do the Oregon Ducks need to look to the NCAA Transfer Portal for RB help?

With no CJ Verdell or Travis Dye for the 2022 season, the transfer portal could play a big factor in bolstering Oregon’s RB depth chart.

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Much of the Oregon Ducks fanbase has been emotionally preparing for the news that was released on Monday morning. CJ Verdell announced that he will be ending his career in Eugene and heading to the 2022 NFL draft.

The announcement came just a few days after former Oregon RB Travis Dye announced that he would be transferring to the USC Trojans to finish out his college career.

And just like that, arguably one of the best RB tandems in Oregon history is out the door. With them go 1,062 carries, 6,031 yards, and 47 rushing touchdowns. Add to that the combined 142 catches for 1,488 yards and 12 touchdowns, and it’s easy to see that the Ducks certainly have a hole to fill in the backfield.

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Does Oregon currently have the players on the roster who can fill that hole?

Part of what makes this transition away from Verdell and Dye a little bit easier to swallow for fans is the fact that a trio of Byron Cardwell, Seven McGee, and Sean Dollars look primed and ready to take over. Cardwell burst onto the scene after Verdell’s injury in 2021, and he looks capable of becoming a premier back if given the opportunity. Nonetheless, that trio has a lot of work to do in order to prove that they can keep up the production that we’ve grown used to in Eugene. At the moment, those three will enter the 2022 season with a combined 103 touches for 694 total yards and 4 touchdowns. There’s certainly some high upside, but without us knowing how any of them will perform over an entire season’s time, a low floor is there if we choose to acknowledge it.

That leads us to a potential solution for the Ducks — might it be time to look at the NCAA transfer portal for help?

Dan Lanning and his staff are way ahead of us. Over the past weekend, when a flurry of recruits aged 18 and under were on campus for both official and unofficial visits, one player stood apart. Former Colorado Buffaloes running back Jarek Broussard was in Eugene checking out the school a few weeks after entering the transfer portal himself.

Broussard is an interesting player to consider, simply because of his past resume. In 2020, he was named the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year after rushing for 895 yards and 5 touchdowns in the pandemic-shortened season. He had a bit of a down-year in 2021, putting up only 661 yards and 2 touchdowns, but still presents a veteran presence that the Ducks are sorely missing in the backfield at the moment.

If you think it’s a pipe-dream that Oregon can simply snag a heralded player out of the portal days after losing two of their best players from the 2021 roster, you should think again. According to the 247 Sports Crystal Ball predictor, Director of Football Recruiting Steve Wiltfong has entered a prediction that shows he is confident Broussard will end up with the Ducks. It certainly seems like Broussard enjoyed his time in Eugene over the weekend, as well.

Over the next few days, or weeks, we will likely find out what the future holds for Broussard and the Ducks. However, after the news that came from Verdell on Monday, it seems pretty clear that Oregon is making a push for the former Colorado star in trying to fill out their RB depth.

Contact/Follow us @Ducks_Wire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes, and opinion.

Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today.

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Seven McGee announces change to No. 7 after departure of CJ Verdell

It just makes sense, doesn’t it? Seven McGee announced he’d be taking the No. 7 at Oregon after CJ Verdell’s departure.

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It just makes sense…doesn’t it?

On Monday morning, just a couple of hours after former Oregon running back CJ Verdell announced that he would be departing for the 2022 NFL draft, freshman RB Seven McGee had an announcement of his own to make.

That announcement was that he would be taking ownership of the No. 7 jersey at Oregon in 2022 and making it his own.

Like I said, it just makes sense.

McGee, who had a combined 21 touches for 145 yards and a touchdown in his true freshman season with the Ducks, it set to see a much bigger workload in the future with both Verdell and Dye now off the roster. Many believe that McGee will fit well in a slot-receiver/running back hybrid role, much like De’Anthony Thomas back in his days.

While we will have to wait and see how Dan Lanning and Kenny Dillingham plan to use him in the offense, we won’t have to wait to see if he will be wearing his namesake on his chest.

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CJ Verdell pens ‘thank you’ to University of Oregon after NFL draft decision

CJ Verdell made sure to note that he wouldn’t be where he is today without the people at the U of O helping him along the way.

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The decision that former Oregon Ducks running back CJ Verdell made on Monday morning did not come out of left field, but it is likely going to be hard to accept for Oregon fans either way.

Verdell announced that he will be keeping his name in the 2022 NFL draft and ending his college career with the Ducks, hoping to make the leap to the professional ranks next season. As it stands now, Verdell will leave Eugene as the No. 6 all-time leading rusher with  2,920 career rushing yards and 30 total touchdowns.

When announcing his decision on social media, Verdell took the time to thank a number of people at the U of O for helping him get to where he is today.

“I want to give a special shout-out to everyone at the Jaqua, especially Ms. Jeanne. I do not know what I would have done without all your help and guidance,” Verdell wrote. “The education and life skills that I have learned during my time at the University of Oregon are invaluable and I will carry them with me forever.”

Because of his injury history at Oregon, it is hard to project where Verdell might end up in the NFL draft, but he was projected to be one of the first RBs off the board when fully healthy. We will continue to watch that as it develops over the next couple of months leading up to April.

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