Tag: evan stewart

Oregon WR garners a Devonta Smith comparison

Dalton Wasserman of PFF compares Oregon Ducks transfer wide receiver Evan Stewart to Philadelphia Eagles WR DeVonta Smith.

One of the Oregon Ducks’ most exciting — and surprising — additions this offseason was Texas A&M transfer wide receiver Evan Stewart. 247Sports final transfer rankings lists Stewart as the No. 5 overall transfer this offseason, and this weekend, Pro Football Focus compared him to Philadelphia Eagles WR DeVonta Smith.

Smith played four years of college football at Alabama, where he became the fourth non-quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy this century, winning in 2020. Despite a lean frame, Smith excelled in college as a wideout and in the slot, using his elite speed and his one-of-a-kind route-running to dice up opposing defenses.

Dalton Wasserman, the PFF writer who compared Stewart to Smith, singled out Stewart’s route-running as parallel to the Eagles wideout. Stewart only has two seasons of college experience, and he dealt with injury issues during his time as an Aggie, but if Stewart’s route-running at Oregon is half as effective as Smith’s was at Alabama, he’ll be a perfect match with Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein’s offense.

 

At the top of the Ducks’ WR depth chart, next to Stewart, are Tez Johnson and Traeshon Holden. To oversimplify each of their styles, Johnson is a speed demon and Holden is a big, athletic pass catcher. That three-WR combination gives Stewart space to fill the X-receiver spot (No. 1 wideout). At the X, Stewart would have plenty of downfield big-play potential and frequent short targets from Dillon Gabriel as a reliable checkdown receiver.

Wide receiver Evan Stewart inks a big NIL deal with NXTRND

Oregon wide receiver has signed a big NIL deal with the football equipment company NXTRND.

According to On3, Oregon wide receiver Evan Stewart has signed a deal with the football equipment company NXTRND.

Stewart was one of the top players that entered the transfer portal after this past season and Oregon was aggressive in signing the receiver from Texas A&M. He was also a five-star receiver when recruited and signed by the Aggies.

In his two seasons in College Station, Stewart caught 91 passes for 1,163 yards and six touchdowns. Injuries slowed him down in the 2023 season as he just played in eight games.

Known as “Next Trend,” the equipment company makes everything from back plates to gloves. They came out to Eugene last week and did a complete photo shoot with Stewart.

His estimated NIL total evaluation is thought to be around $1.3 million.

Oregon WR Evan Stewart lands with ‘America’s Team’ in latest ESPN 2025 mock draft

Evan Stewart to “America’s Team” in 2025? The latest mock draft from ESPN has it happening.

It hasn’t even been a week since the 2024 NFL Draft concluded, where a program-record eight Oregon Ducks were selected, but we already have our eyes on 2025 and what that might bring for Eugene.

The Ducks have a five-year streak of having first-rounders selected in the draft, and according to the latest mock from ESPN, that streak will continue with wide receiver Evan Stewart going to the Dallas Cowboys with the No. 26 overall pick.

Outside of CeeDee Lamb, the Cowboys haven’t really found a dependable pass-game option on the perimeter. That’s why I like Stewart as a fit in Dallas. He is a sudden route runner with instant acceleration to threaten defenders in a hurry. The Texas A&M transfer lacks play strength, as only 27 of his 514 receiving yards came after contact last season, and he managed three forced missed tackles over eight games. Even so, the flashes suggest big upside and a potential breakout year.

Stewart has yet to play a real game in Eugene, but he did look impressive in the spring game last weekend after transferring in from Texas A&M. In his two seasons at the college level, Stewart has 91 catches for 1,163 yards and 6 touchdowns.

The receiver room in Eugene is stacked with talent, so Stewart is going to have to compete with the likes of Tez Johnson, Traeshon Holden, Gary Bryant, and others for targets, but based on the talent that he brings to the table, a career year isn’t hard to project for the Texas native.

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Evan Stewart details decision to transfer from Texas A&M to Oregon

Evan Stewart says that Oregon was the perfect fit for him this offseason.

Neither receiver talent nor depth were much of an issue for the Oregon Ducks after the 2023 season, with returning players like Tez Johnson, Traeshon Holden, and Gary Bryant Jr. leading a young group of potential breakouts such as Jurrion Dickey and Kyler Kasper into the 2024 season.

But if you can get better, then why not get better?

That was Dan Lanning’s mentality when bringing former Texas A&M wide receiver Evan Stewart to Eugene. The former 5-star recruit who was rated as the No. 1 overall WR in the class of 2022 has made an early splash with the Ducks, drawing rave reviews from coaches and fellow players.

So why did he choose to come to Oregon ultimately?

“Honestly, it just suited everything that I was looking for,” Stewart said on Thursday after practice. “I just wanted to be in a great program that had a lot of order and construction. I got here and everything is in order. Honestly, everything is just so much better here.”

Stewart played in 18 games at Texas A&M over the last two years, catching 91 passes for 1,163 yards and 6 touchdowns. While he dealt with injuries throughout his time, as well as rotating quarterback play, the stability that Oregon brings was obviously attractive to him.

Now, in Oregon’s offense, Stewart will have to compete with Tez Johnson and Traeshon Holden for the lion’s share of the targets, but he is ready for the challenge, and knows that he is going to be better for it.

“I’m trying to get them passes,” Stewart said. “At A&M, we were moving the ball, but we weren’t as complete as we could be. Coming here, we’ve definitely got a lot.”

The spring game on Saturday will be a great showcase for Stewart, who is looking to show his new fanbase exactly what he is capable of, and how electric he can be inside Autzen Stadium.

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Oregon OC Will Stein details the luxuries and the challenges of having so much depth at WR

There are a lot of mouths to feed in Oregon’s WR room, but only one ball. It’s a good problem to have, says Will Stein.

It may seem ironic, but sometimes it isn’t easy in college football to have a roster as complete as the Oregon Ducks do ahead of the 2024 season.

The Ducks are coming off a season in which they boasted a top-10 offense and a top-10 defense in points and points allowed per game — something only two other FBS teams did. Somehow, on paper, they’ve improved.

Although Oregon is losing Troy Franklin this offseason, the Ducks’ WR room looks like one of their most talented and deepest position groups, with elite talent at the top and bottom of the depth chart. For the 2024 season, Oregon is returning Tez Johnson, Traeshon Holden, and Gary Bryant Jr., and they’ve added Texas A&M transfer Evan Stewart and a trio of freshmen in Jeremiah McClellan, Ryan Pellum, and Dillon Gresham as well. Be sure not to sleep on Jurrion Dickey and Kyler Kasper, either.

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After practice on Tuesday, Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein spoke about the luxury of having so many talented wide receivers on a team.

“It’s huge,” Stein said. “I mean whenever you can roll six or seven deep at wideout, you know you’ve got a really good room. We still want to keep our play count up, and earlier in the year especially with the weather and the heat, we want to roll a lot of guys in there.”

It’s tough to say at this point in the process who Oregon’s top receivers will be, but Johnson, Stewart, and Holden are the early favorites to lead the WR room. With the quality receivers Oregon has in addition to those three, though, Stein may have a tough time balancing everyone’s usage.

“It’ll be fun, but it’s going to be stressful too,” Stein said about the challenge of getting everyone involved. “There’s a lot of players on our team. It’s a wonderful problem to have. It comes back to game planning and when you’re in that setting, personnel-specific plays are, I think, huge. We’ll see when we get there.”

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In addition to the wide receivers, Stein will have the challenge of working the ball to Oregon’s talented tight ends. Terrance Ferguson is coming back for his final season this fall, and last season he showed he is one of the best TEs in college football. Earlier this spring, Stein even said that he “needs to get him (Ferguson) the ball more.” Patrick Herbert and Kenyon Sadiq are two other TEs who could be big producers for the Ducks in the fall.

Like Stein said, having a variety of weapons at your disposal is a great problem to have. It should lead to a more diverse offensive strategy, making things more difficult for opposing defenses by throwing different concepts at them. It should also help the Ducks’ players manage their load, hopefully mitigating injuries.

“Shoot, we’ve got a lot of really good players. It’s about getting those kids the ball and getting their confidence up early,” Stein said.

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Early anticipation is high for Evan Stewart with Oregon Ducks

Let the Evan Stewart hype build.

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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Spring Position Preview: Evan Stewart, Tez Johnson lead WR room stacked with talent

Oregon might possess the most talented and deepest WR room in the country in 2024.

After a couple of long off-season months, the grass is starting to grow and trees are getting ready to bloom. Spring is coming in Eugene, and with it comes the long-awaited return of football for the Oregon Ducks. A lot will look different in this new year for Dan Lanning and his team, with several of last year’s top players moving onto the NFL, including guys like Bo Nix, Troy Franklin, Bucky Irving, Jackson Powers-Johnson, and Brandon Dorlus. All of that is not to mention the fact that the Ducks are joining the Big Ten, and have a new-look conference to get used to on top of a spot in the expanded College Football Playoff to strive for. 

It’s safe to say that there are a lot of things to talk about going into this spring season, and a lot of storylines to discuss. To get things started, we want to give a position-by-position breakdown of Oregon’s current roster, getting readers up to date on which players left, which players are returning, and what the overall outlook is going into the spring. So far, we’ve looked at the quarterbacks and the running backs. Now we’ll examine the Ducks’ receivers’ room.

The Ducks have had some great receivers in the past, but this particular group might be the most talented and deepest receiver corps Oregon has ever had. It’s not often that you see arguably the best WR in school history come and go in one season, and expect the talent level to rise the next year, but that could be the case in Eugene with this group that is ready to wreak havoc on Big Ten defenses.

Led by Tez Johnson, Evan Stewart, and Traeshon Holden, Oregon’s receivers have all the qualities a coach would want. There are big, speedy, and tall ones for Gabriel to choose from. The only problem might be there is just one football to spread the wealth with. Fortunately, it’s a problem most teams would love to have.

Here’s a full breakdown on everything you need to know regarding the receiver position, from who left, who joined, and some of the biggest storylines to follow.

Pair of Ducks listed as top potential draft picks for 2025 NFL Draft

A pair of Ducks are projected to garner a lot of attention from NFL scouts for the 2025 draft.

The 2024 is still about four months away, but some are beginning to think about the 2025 NFL draft.

According to CBSsports.com writer Tom Fornelli, there are two Ducks that NFL scouts are going to pay close attention to. Transfer wide receiver Evan Stewart via Texas A&M and offensive lineman Josh Conerly Jr. are two of the 20 best players who will be draft eligible for 2025.

This is what Fornelli had to say about Oregon’s newest receiver.

Stewart was one of the top receivers in the 2022 class. Unlike (Missouri’s Luther) Burden, Stewart performed slightly better as a freshman than in his sophomore season. Still, most of that can likely be attributed to circumstances beyond Stewart’s control. Stewart has since transferred to Oregon, where he’s seen as the replacement for Troy Franklin in the Ducks’ offense. If Stewart puts together a big year in (green and yellow), he could play his way into the first round.

One of the reasons Stewart came to Oregon no doubt was to catch passes from Dillon Gabriel. The Ducks expect Gabriel to have an impact on the receivers similar to what Bo Nix had and Stewart should benefit greatly.

As for Conerly, the former five-star recruit will be a junior and should be one of the top offensive linemen in the Big Ten next season.

“Much like the QB class for next season, I’m not confident about who will be seen as the top tackle in next year’s draft,” Fornelli said. “Last year, it was Penn State’s Olu Fashanu and Notre Dame’s Joe Alt. Several candidates could step up this year, and Conerly is one of my favorites. Oregon’s offensive line was a significant strength last season, and Conerly was excellent in pass protection. He has the production and the traits to garner NFL attention.”

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WATCH: Oregon’s new WR Evan Stewart shows elite upside in highlight film

Check out the Oregon Ducks new wide receiver, Evan Stewart, on film.

Thursday, January 11th was a day of good news for the Oregon Ducks and their fans. First and foremost, Dan Lanning reaffirmed his loyalty to Oregon, despite a head coaching vacancy at Alabama — one of the most sought-after jobs in college football.

But, the good news didn’t end there.  Late on Thursday night, the Ducks received a commitment from Texas A&M wide receiver transfer, Evan Stewart.

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Over two seasons, Stewart played 18 games with the Aggies, racking up 1163 receiving yards and 6 TDs along the way. Oregon will face the tough task of replacing star WR Troy Franklin in 2024, and Stewart could be a big help in bolstering their receiving corps.

Below is a bit of Stewart’s film in two years at Texas A&M. The junior receiver has great hands, elite route-running, and is dangerous after the catch in open space, all of which shows up on his film.

We may not see Stewart participate in spring football this year as he recovers from some injuries and gets ready for the 2024 season, but it’s safe to say that fans should be excited to watch him play as soon as possible.

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Where WR Evan Stewart stands among the top-rated transfers in Dan Lanning era

A look at where Oregon Ducks’ new wide receiver transfer Evan Stewart ranks among top-rated transfers to come to Oregon under Dan Lanning.

It feels like we can definitively say after two years of Dan Lanning’s tenure with the Oregon Ducks that three things are true — the head coach is incredibly loyal, he’s an elite recruiter, and there are few people in the nation better at utilizing the transfer portal than him.

On Thursday, he proved all three of those things. The day started with Lanning delivering a message to Duck fans saying that he was planning to stay in Eugene and not take the head coaching job for the Alabama Crimson Tide. It ended with Lanning getting a massive commitment from former Texas A&M wide receiver Evan Stewart, the No. 2 rated player in the transfer portal this year.

Stewart comes to Oregon as a former 5-star recruit from the class of 2022, where he was the No. 1 WR and No. 6 overall player in the nation. He racked up 91 catches for 1,163 yards and 6 touchdowns in his two years, and now he comes to Eugene with two years of eligibility remaining and projects to be one of the starting receivers for the Ducks.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen Lanning add some top-rated portal players to the roster, whether it was Bo Nix, Jordan Burch, or Christian Gonzalez.

So where does Stewart rank among the 29 (non-specialist) Oregon transfers in the Lanning era? There are two ways to look at it. For starters, you can take into account the 247Sports transfer portal rankings. However, those rankings don’t always match what we see play out on the field. For instance, Bo Nix was a three-star prospect in the portal, but he finished his college career as a Heisman Trophy finalist in New York.

For good measure, I added my own rankings based on how good each player ended up being in Eugene.

Let’s take a look at the 25 best transfers that the Ducks have landed since Lanning has been here, and see where Stewart lands: