Offensive lineman Steven Jones announced he will return to Oregon for his sixth season in 2023, offering a major boost to Bo Nix and the Ducks.
Much of Oregon’s experienced offensive line from 2022 will not return next season, but they were missing one key cog for most of the season.
That piece was Steven Jones, who returned to duty late in the regular season and it looks as if the 6-foot-5, 340-pounder from Temecula, Calif. will be a Duck for the 2023 season.
Jones redshirted his sophomore season and thanks to the pandemic, he was granted another year of eligibility. As a junior this season, Jones sustained a foot ailment early in the 2022 campaign and was unable to return until the Utah game Nov. 19.
Oregon will need both his size and experience next season as the Ducks will lose the likes of Alex Forsyth, Ryan Walk and others.
The Ducks got banged up against Washington on Saturday, and could potentially be without a few key pieces this weekend against Utah.
Obviously, no one wants to see a player go down with an injury, but when Oregon quarterback Bo Nix was being helped off the field after a hit to the knee, you could hear a pin drop inside Autzen Stadium.
The fate of the Oregon Ducks football season could rest on Nix’s knee. They need him to play. It would be the difference between a possible Pac-12 title with a trip to the Rose Bowl and an appearance in the Sun Bowl.
When asked in his Monday press conference, Ducks head coach Dan Lanning didn’t give specifics, but he said he felt better about the situation than he did Saturday night.
Besides Nix, a few other Ducks were banged up during the 37-34 loss to Washington. The Ducks don’t offer an official injury report each and every week, so we tried to compile some information from what we’ve seen and heard this week at practice and interviews.
An updated look at the Oregon Ducks’ injury news ahead of the Washington State game on Saturday.
It’s the fourth week of the college football season and the Oregon Ducks football game head into the Palouse with a relatively healthy team. There are just a few players who are definitely out for the game and a couple of key players are expected to be back and travel to Pullman.
The Cougars are also hopeful of regaining the services of a couple of key defensive players such as corner Chau Smith-Wade and safety Jordan Lee. WSU coach Jake Dickert wouldn’t proclaim those players will be on the field Saturday against the Ducks, however.
While Oregon doesn’t officially release an injury report each week, we took information gleaned from interviews and practice and have put together one of our own. Here is our estimation of what Oregon’s injury report will look like on Saturday.
A total of five Oregon Ducks have been placed on the Reese’s Senior Bowl watch list ahead of the season.
With less than a week until the 2022 college football season getting off the ground, one of the more anticipated watch lists for the nation’s veteran players has been released.
The Reese’s Senior Bowl watch list features 484 players who deserve to be focused on ahead of next year’s 2023 NFL Draft. It is a compilation of the “best of the best” draft prospects who will be eligible to play in the annual Senior Bowl after the season is over, giving them arguably the biggest stage — aside from the NFL Combine — to showcase their skills and offer NFL teams a chance to evaluate them.
While the Oregon Ducks are a young team, there is a handful of guys who made the list, five in total. Here’s who is on the watch list.
It’s that time of year where pre-season lists are being published in the world of college football and there’s no more prestigious pre-season publisher than Phil Steele.
He has selected 15 Oregon Ducks as all-conference players with four of those Ducks on his First Team All-Pac-12 list.
It should come as no surprise that defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux would lead this particular list off. Thibodeaux has a chance to be a First-Team All-American and a very high draft choice when the NFL draft rolls around next April.
Joining Thibodeaux on the first team is offensive linemen TJ Bass and Alex Forsyth to go with cornerback Mykael Wright. Bass and Forsyth will be second-year starters for Oregon along that huge O-line and Wright was an all-Pac-12 player last season as a sophomore.
On Steele’s second-team all-conference is safety Verone McKinley III, linebacker Noah Sewell, receiver Devon Williams, offensive lineman Steven Jones, and tailback CJ Verdell.
McKinley was a freshman All-American in 2019 and Sewell was also one in 2020. Because of the pandemic, those players are still a sophomore and freshman, respectively, and look to be the core of the Oregon defense in 2021.
The 6-foot-5 Williams should be a go-to target for quarterback Anthony Brown this season as he has Jones, Bass and Forsyth to protect him. Brown is listed on Steele’s fourth-team all-conference list.
Verdell is looking to become of of the great Oregon tailbacks of all time with 68 more yards to crack the Oregon Top 10 list. He’s less than 1,000 yards away from 3,500 career yards.
Safety Jamal Hill leads Oregon on Steele’s third team along with offensive lineman Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu, long snapper Karsten Battles and punter Tom Snee.
Hill played in all 14 games in 2019 and another six in 2020 where he managed to grab two interceptions. Aumavae-Laulu, at 6-foot-6 and 325 pounds will be yet another massive body on that line and Battles is a very reliable long snapper that is key to the Ducks’ special teams. Snee’s punting ability has improved each season as he averaged nearly 44 yards per punt in 2020.
Along with Brown, defensive tackle Brandon Dorlus made Steele’s fourth-team all-Pac-12 list.
Oregon’s offensive line was inexperienced in 2020, but now they’re ready to show valuable lessons were learned along the way.
Former Oregon Ducks quarterback Justin Herbert will be the first one to say that much of his success was due to his offensive line. The group literally grew with Herbert in the program.
But then when it was time to leave, they all left. What remained in 2020 was talented, but extremely young and inexperienced, which showed at times. Oregon’s run game wasn’t as explosive, and suddenly the Ducks quarterback, either Tyler Shough and Anthony Brown, was scrambling more than usual.
[lawrence-related id=712]
Now it’s a year later and the offensive line is still together, ready to show that some hard lessons were learned and those lessons are going to be put to use this coming season.
This young group has always had the necessary size to be successful, but in 2021, the offensive line has experience in the back pocket. No one will be happier to play with the new and improved line than Brown and the tailbacks.
It all begins with the center, Alex Forsyth. The 6-foot-4, 305-pounder from West Lynn, Ore. went from playing in just five games in 2019 to being a second-team all-conference selection by the Pac-12 coaches.
Manning the left side of the line will most likely be George Moore at tackle and TJ Bass at guard. Moore, a senior from Antioch, Calif. stands at 6-foot-6 and weighs 325 pounds. Despite being named as the No. 1 junior college offensive lineman after the 2016 season, he hasn’t been able to find consistent playing time until last season.
Bass is another junior college transfer that didn’t see significant playing time until 2020. The 6-foot-5, 318-pound junior from Deming, Wash. made the most of his opportunity last season and was named as an honorable mention by the Pac-12 coaches.
Andy Nelson/The Register-Guard
On the right side of the center will be junior Ryan Walk and Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu. Walk is a Eugene native from Sheldon High School and has seen firsthand how good the Herbert brothers are. He’s not so bad himself. At 6-foot-3 and 290 pounds, the media named him as an all-conference selection in 2020. As for Aumavae-Laulu, the 6-foot-6, 325-pounder from Hilo, Hawaii was a second-team all-Pac-12 player last season after redshirting the 2019 season.
Not only is the offensive line group experienced, but it’s deep as well. The Ducks have several big men who will fight for playing time, beginning with Steven Jones and Dawson Jaramillo.
Jones is a mammoth human being at 6-foot-6 and 340 pounds. The Temecula, Calif. native was in the regular rotation of linemen last season and he should expect that not to change anytime soon.
The 6-foo5-5, 303-pounder Jaramillo, a Portland, Ore. native, should also expect to see some regular playing time in his sophomore season.
Someone who might be able to break through fairly quickly is true freshman Kingley Suamataia from Orum, Utah. At 6-foot-5 and 270 pounds, Suamataia was a five-star recruit and rated as a top 25 player and one of the best offensive linemen in the country. He was also named to the second-team All-USA High School Football Preseason Team by USA Today.
Oregon’s offensive line was inexperienced in 2020, but now they’re ready to show valuable lessons were learned along the way.
Former Oregon Ducks quarterback Justin Herbert will be the first one to say that much of his success was due to his offensive line. The group literally grew with Herbert in the program.
But then when it was time to leave, they all left. What remained in 2020 was talented, but extremely young and inexperienced, which showed at times. Oregon’s run game wasn’t as explosive, and suddenly the Ducks quarterback, either Tyler Shough and Anthony Brown, was scrambling more than usual.
[lawrence-related id=712]
Now it’s a year later and the offensive line is still together, ready to show that some hard lessons were learned and those lessons are going to be put to use this coming season.
This young group has always had the necessary size to be successful, but in 2021, the offensive line has experience in the back pocket. No one will be happier to play with the new and improved line than Brown and the tailbacks.
It all begins with the center, Alex Forsyth. The 6-foot-4, 305-pounder from West Lynn, Ore. went from playing in just five games in 2019 to being a second-team all-conference selection by the Pac-12 coaches.
Manning the left side of the line will most likely be George Moore at tackle and TJ Bass at guard. Moore, a senior from Antioch, Calif. stands at 6-foot-6 and weighs 325 pounds. Despite being named as the No. 1 junior college offensive lineman after the 2016 season, he hasn’t been able to find consistent playing time until last season.
Bass is another junior college transfer that didn’t see significant playing time until 2020. The 6-foot-5, 318-pound junior from Deming, Wash. made the most of his opportunity last season and was named as an honorable mention by the Pac-12 coaches.
Andy Nelson/The Register-Guard
On the right side of the center will be junior Ryan Walk and Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu. Walk is a Eugene native from Sheldon High School and has seen firsthand how good the Herbert brothers are. He’s not so bad himself. At 6-foot-3 and 290 pounds, the media named him as an all-conference selection in 2020. As for Aumavae-Laulu, the 6-foot-6, 325-pounder from Hilo, Hawaii was a second-team all-Pac-12 player last season after redshirting the 2019 season.
Not only is the offensive line group experienced, but it’s deep as well. The Ducks have several big men who will fight for playing time, beginning with Steven Jones and Dawson Jaramillo.
Jones is a mammoth human being at 6-foot-6 and 340 pounds. The Temecula, Calif. native was in the regular rotation of linemen last season and he should expect that not to change anytime soon.
The 6-foo5-5, 303-pounder Jaramillo, a Portland, Ore. native, should also expect to see some regular playing time in his sophomore season.
Someone who might be able to break through fairly quickly is true freshman Kingley Suamataia from Orum, Utah. At 6-foot-5 and 270 pounds, Suamataia was a five-star recruit and rated as a top 25 player and one of the best offensive linemen in the country. He was also named to the second-team All-USA High School Football Preseason Team by USA Today.
