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.