One of the best running backs in Oregon Ducks history has announced that he will forego the final year of his college eligibility and enter the 2022 NFL draft.
Verdell, who had a blistering start to the 2021 Oregon season, unfortunately, was forced to sit for the final half of the year due to a leg injury that took place in Week 5 against the Stanford Cardinal. He will finish his career as a Duck with 2,920 career rushing yards and 30 total touchdowns. On the all-time career rushing list for Oregon, Verdell currently sits at No. 6, behind Travis Dye, Derek Loville, Kenjon Barner, LaMichael James, and Royce Freeman.
Maybe the highlight of Verdell’s career came this past season in Week 2 against Ohio State, where Verdell was the player of the game with 161 yards and 3 total touchdowns in the upset win over the Buckeyes. The best game of Verdell’s career came in 2019 against Washington State, where CJ had 257 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns.
Because of his injury in 2021, it is hard to predict where Verdell’s draft value currently stands, though he was projected to be one of the top backs off the board when healthy. We will keep an eye on his draft value over the next few months as the draft in April draws near.
The news of Verdejo leaving may be tough for some fans to swallow, especially after former Oregon RB Travis Dye announced his transfer to the USC Trojans last week. The depth at the position will be thin for the Ducks in 2022, but with young and promising players like Bryon Cardwell, Seven McGee, and Sean Dollars, Oregon should be able to make it through.
Coming out of the 2021 college football season, the Oregon Ducks seemed to have an embarrassment of riches at the running back position.
Travis Dye was coming off of the best season of his career, Byron Cardwell had impressed in his first year in college, and Seven McGee had grown nicely into a slot-receiver type position that utilized his strengths in the offense. On top of that, you had Trey Benson getting some looks while holding onto his redshirt for the year, as well as Sean Dollars waiting in the wing. To make the situation even sweeter, CJ Verdell still held onto the option of whether or not he wanted to return for one more go-around with the Ducks or stay in the 2022 NFL draft.
What once looked like a depth chart that was potentially six players deep now is dangerously close to entering spring ball with just 3 viable options, two of whom had to be convinced to return to the program.
That’s what makes Verdell’s upcoming decision so massively important for the Oregon Ducks. As one of the best RBs in Oregon history—Verdell currently sits at No. 6 on the Ducks’ all-time rushing list—another season in Eugene would bring a massive boost to Lanning’s first team. If Verdell were to return, he would bring with him 2,920 career rushing yards and 30 total touchdowns, with a chance to make a big jump up that career list and solidify himself as one of the best players in Oregon history. It would also create an explosive dynamic where you could pair him with Cardwell in the backfield, and create an extravagant smashmouth style that would be difficult to defend.
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That’s if he returns, though. Without Verdell—or Dye— on the roster, then the Ducks will enter the 2022 season with an RB depth chart that has just 91 combined carries for 606 yards and 4 touchdowns.
That’s an inexperienced group at what is historically the best position on the field in Eugene.
Oregon and Oklahoma will enter the Alamo Bowl a bit shorthanded, but both will try to make the best of it and end 2021 on a winning note.
So much has happened in the last three weeks that the loss in the Pac-12 championship seems like five years ago.
Oregon enters the Alamo Bowl with an interim head coach in Bryan McClendon and will be missing key personnel as Oklahoma awaits the Ducks.
Defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux and wide receiver Devon Williams highlight several other Ducks who have either opted out of the bowl game in favor of their future or are too injured to play.
“We’re having to dig into some depth at some different spots. But most of it is all bumps and bruises associated with play,” McClendon said. “I think what we have to do is make sure that the guys are able to step up. It’s given guys some opportunities to be able to do that.”
The Sooners, however, are far from 100 percent as they will also be missing starters on both sides of the ball including linebacker Nik Bonitto, defensive end Isaiah Thomas and quarterback Spencer Rattler.
Oklahoma interim coach Bob Stoops will be dealing with the same situation as Oregon and while they will be missing some offensive players, most of their opt-outs are on defense.
“You’re not going to play with nine, 10 guys. We’re going to have 11 guys out there. These young guys want an opportunity and they’re good players,” he said. I’ve loved the energy, the way they’ve been playing on defense and practicing. I think Coach Odom has done an awesome job with those guys.
“Most of those guys are all up front. But we have some depth up there. These young guys that are going to get more snaps have to step up and play. But they’re capable of playing well. It will be a challenge.”
The opt outs will give other players the chance to shine who otherwise wouldn’t be able to have that much time on the field.
One guy Oklahoma will definitely be paying attention to will be tailback Travis Dye. Even though he rotated in and out with CJ Verdell before he got hurt, Dye was never the main guy in the backfield. When he got the chance, Dye made the most of it with is 1,118 yards on the ground and 15 touchdowns.
“It was nice that guys looked at me to step up after CJ (Verdell) went down, and it was just nice to put in the work and the results come out like the way you want them to, like any running back wants it to,” Dye said. “But like you said, all I care about is winning, and the rest of the stuff will come.”
Dye and the rest of the Ducks will have one more chance to get in the win column in 2021. A victory would give Oregon an 11-win season and a nice jumping-off point for the Dan Lanning Era in 2022.
The Alamo Bowl is scheduled for a 6:20 kickoff and will be televised on ESPN.
The Oregon Ducks injury list might look similar to Santa’s list this year. It’s that long.
About 30 players that began the season in unform will be missing from the action when the Ducks take the field for the Alamo Bowl Dec. 29 against Oklahoma.
Most of those players, such as tailback CJ Verdell, are nursing ailments that will keep them out. But some are those who have elected to transfer or opted out of the bowl game so their professional futures are not fouled up.
The most prominent of those opting out is defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux, who is expected to be one of the first players taken in the 2022 NFL draft. While it’s a big blow to Oregon’s defensive scheme, it wasn’t a shock to see Thibodeaux focusing on his future rather than a non-New Year’s Six bowl game.
But much of those Ducks not taking the field in San Antonio are injured and would most likely participate if they could.
Here’s a list of Ducks who saw time on the field in 2021, but won’t play in the Alamo Bowl due to an injury or unspecified reason:
Johnny Johnson III (Injury) Sean Dollars (Injury) Jaylen Redd (Injury) Steve Stephens IV (Injury) CJ Verdell (Injury) Justin Flowe (Injury) Bryan Addison (Not at practice/Unspecified) Keith Brown (Injury) Adrian Jackson (Not at practice/Unspecified) Jackson LaDuke (Not at practice/Unspecified) Popo Aumavae (Not at practice/Unspecified) Patrick Herbert (Injury) Cam McCormick (Injury) Keyon Ware-Hudson (Injury) Dru Mathis (Injury)
Over the next few weeks, we will likely see a lot of Oregon players make decisions about declaring for the 2022 NFL draft. Which Ducks should we keep an eye on?
As the 2021 college football officially winds to a close over the next 10 days, with the finale for the Oregon Ducks coming on December 29th in the Alamo Bowl against the Oklahoma Sooners, we are going to start to see players make decisions about their futures.
For many, this means making a call on whether or not they will be declaring for the 2022 NFL draft, or staying in Eugene for another year to play under Dan Lanning in his first season with the Ducks.
So far, we’ve already seen a number of players make their decisions known, kicked off by DE Kayvon Thibodeaux announcing soon after the Pac-12 Championship game that he will be leaving for the next level. This was obviously expected, with Thibodeaux projected to be a top-5 pick next April. We’ve also seen guys like Devon Williams, Mykael Wright, and Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu declare for the draft, while guys like Bennett Williams and Alex Forsyth have said they’re coming back in 2022.
So who are some other names that we should look out for to make their decisions public over the next couple of weeks? These guys should be at the top of the list:
One of the biggest injury blows that the Oregon Ducks have received so far this year came last week when it was announced that star running back CJ Verdell would miss the rest of the season with a lower leg injury.
In a year where Oregon has battled a flurry of injuries, this one will be among the most impactful.
Not only was Verdell an important player for the Ducks, be he was arguably the biggest driving force of the offense, totaling 397 yards and 5 touchdowns on the ground, with another 83 yards and two touchdowns receiving as well.
Without his production out of the backfield, it is reasonable to ask where the Ducks will go to get a large portion of their yards and points going forward. You can expect that fellow RB Travis Dye will have a big hand in shouldering the load, but it’s impossible to believe that he will assume the entirety of the load left behind by Verdell.
This is where the freshmen come in. Oregon is luckily pretty deep at the RB spot, with a trio of Seven McGee, Trey Benson, and Byron Cardwell all seeing the field at various times so far this season. We don’t have a large sample size of what they can do just yet, but we’ve seen enough to believe that they can step up when called upon.
“A lot of these young guys have to step up a lot more and they might not have expected to this early, but we’re going to be alright,” Travis Dye said earlier this week. “They’re hungry for it, they want it. It’s going to define itself, who it’s going to be and whoever it is I have full trust.”
While the goal is to replace the production from Verdell, it’s pretty clear that the Ducks’ won’t try to do so with the presence of just one RB, but rather deploy all three players at different times in order to find success. If it is a short down situation or a time where a conventional back is needed, we can expect Benson or Cardwell to get the action, while McGee will likely get the call when a passing situation arises, or should Dye need a breather.
“We feel they’re game ready,” Oregon coach Mario Cristobal said. “The way that we rotate, the way we configure the reps from camp all the way till now, they’re pretty evenly split up. Those guys have had a truckload of reps and they’ve performed well to where we feel they’re game ready. There’s no hesitation or reservation there. So we’ll let it eat.”
In a game against the Cal Golden Bears on Friday night where the Ducks are expected to be able to build a lead, we can expect to see what the young guys can do down the stretch. It won’t likely just be one of them that gets the major share of the workload, though. In Eugene, we can now expect a true running back by committee.
Oregon running back CJ Verdell will miss the rest of the 2021 college football season due to a leg injury, Ducks head coach Mario Cristobal announced Thursday.
Verdell suffered the injury during Saturday’s overtime loss to Stanford, and finishes his 2021 campaign with 406 rushing yards on 78 carries, with six touchdowns.
The 5-8, 211-pound junior will now face a decision as to whether he will return for his senior season, or enter the 2022 NFL draft as one of the better running back prospects in the class.
In our only chance to talk to Mario Cristobal this week, the coach expressed confidence in QB Anthony Brown, as well as offer injury updates to some key players.
With the Oregon Ducks off this week due to their bye, media members only got one chance to meet with head coach Mario Cristobal and discuss what took place last Saturday against Stanford, as well as the rash of injuries suffered and an outlook going forward.
Seeing as it was our first chance to hear from Cristobal since Saturday afternoon, there were a lot of topics that were discussed and a lot of information that came out of the conversation. With a potential QB controversy in practice, a number of starters being lost for the season, and an offensive coordinator who underwent surgery before the game on Saturday, we learned a lot from the press conference. Here are some of the biggest and most notable pieces of information that were shared:
The injuries keep piling up for the Oregon Ducks in a season that head coach Mario Cristobal has explained as something he’s never seen before.
News came out today that running back CJ Verdell is likely to miss the remainder of the 2021 season after suffering a leg injury in the second half against the Stanford Cardinal last Saturday.
Verdell went down on the play, favoring his left leg, and was helped off the field, eventually being carted to the locker room.
This is not only another unfortunate injury in the snake-bitten career of Verdell at Oregon, but also a brutal blow to the Ducks’ offense. The defensive side of the ball has seen a rash of injuries already this year, with Justin Flowe and Dru Mathis out for the season, as well as Kayvon Thibodeaux missing several weeks with an ankle injury. On top of that, safety Bennett Williams reportedly suffered a broken fibula in a freak injury on the Friday before the Stanford game.
The injury to Verdell is the most serious hit that the offense has taken thus far. Tight end Cam McCormick was lost earlier in the season to yet another ankle injury, but it will be hard to replace what Verdell brings to the running game. So far this season, he had just under 500 total yards with seven touchdowns, and he was a huge piece of the dominant backfield duo alongside Travis Dye.
Going forward, it looks like Dye will have to shoulder much of the load in the running game, with a mix of either Trey Benson, Byron Cardwell, and Seven McGee helping out.
Is a trip to the College Football Playoff realistic? Is Anthony Brown the answer at QB? Will injuries be fatal? These are 5 questions Oregon needs to answer during the bye week.
What the Oregon Ducks do over the next few days of practice is going to determine how the rest of their season will go. How they respond to their first loss of the year — a heartbreaking overtime upset to Stanford on The Farm — will tell us what type of makeup head coach Mario Cristobal has instilled in his squad.
How they answer the numerous questions being asked of them right now will shape how we feel about this team not only for the remainder of the 2021-22 season but also impact our perception of Cristobal as a coach going forward.
Those may seem like high stakes, but it’s hard to argue with the notion that the Ducks are at a pivotal point in the season right now. They’ve been regarded highly by the national polls so far this year after an impressive Week 2 win over Ohio State, but subpar performances in 3-of-4 games had many of us a bit skeptical, and familiar problems ended up costing them an undefeated season in the end.
Going forward, it will be interesting to see how they respond. These are five questions that we think the Oregon Ducks need to answer over the next 7-10 days during their bye week:
Is Oregon Satisfied With Its QB Production?
(Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire)
Anthony Brown was bad on Saturday. That’s not just our opinion, but one that is also shared by a vast majority of the Oregon fanbase, as well as the Ducks’ sixth-year senior quarterback himself.
Brown finished the game vs. Stanford with 186 yards passing and one interception with a 53% completion percentage. In his 5 games this season, Brown has completed just 56.5% of his passes for a total of seven touchdowns, with an average yards-per-attempt of 7.7. Through the air, he has been mediocre, at best.
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On the ground, it’s a different story. So far this season, Brown has totaled 198 yards and four touchdowns, often getting out of some trouble when needed. Nobody is taking away AB’s proficiency on the ground, but what we are questioning is his ability to lead this team to the ultimate success at the end of the season.
After the loss on Saturday, we wrote about the need for Oregon to at least have the conversation about benching Brown, instead going with true freshman Ty Thompson. Here is a small excerpt from that article:
It may be time for Mario Cristobal and the Ducks coaching staff to finally have that tough conversation about Brown, and whether or not he truly is the right quarterback to lead this team.
The Ducks’ season is not over with the loss to Stanford, but it definitely got harder. Without a clear path to the CFP, on top of the litany of injuries that continue to pile up, there seems to be a better chance that Oregon ends up settling for a Rose Bowl now rather than a trip to the playoff. But if you had to ask yourself which QB would be better suited to lead the Ducks to one of those two destinations, picking between Brown and true freshman Ty Thompson, who would you choose?
Don’t have an answer? Isn’t that kind of an answer right there?
There’s no telling whether or not Cristobal will actually make that tough choice to move on from Brown this week, but it’s hard to think of a more opportune situation. With an extra week to prepare for a mundane opponent in the California Golden Bears, the Ducks have time to get Thompson ready. On top of that, their game against Cal comes on a Friday night, televised by ESPN at home. The world will be watching and waiting to see how the Ducks respond to their first loss.
Might a new, and perceived franchise QB, be the answer for a successful evening? We’ll see.
