5 2023 Oregon Signees Poised for Larger Impact in 2024
The Ducks have a number of players from their 2023 class who are poised to make a jump in 2024.
Transcript
00:00 Mailbag slash podcast question.
00:02 If you had to pick five players from the 2023 class
00:06 who could make an impact this coming season,
00:08 who would they be?
00:10 And what are their roles slash stats predictions?
00:15 So let's go ahead and pull up Oregon's 2023 class,
00:19 just so you guys can see who it is that I am talking about.
00:23 All right, there we go.
00:26 The 247 page for the 2023 guys.
00:30 So I'm assuming we're talking about guys
00:32 who maybe didn't make as big of an impact in 2023.
00:35 Let me go ahead and double check that question.
00:41 If you had to pick five players from the 2023 class
00:44 who can make an impact this coming season,
00:45 who would they be and what are their roles?
00:47 So yeah, let's just look at it that way.
00:49 I'm assuming that was the way the question was being asked,
00:51 but guys who maybe didn't play a whole lot in 2023
00:56 and could play a bigger role in 2024.
00:59 I think right at the top of that list,
01:01 you got to put Jerrion Dickey, the wide receiver,
01:05 who's going to be entering his second year at Oregon.
01:07 He was the only five-star the Ducks signed
01:09 in the 2023 class.
01:10 He had a season ending injury in his senior year
01:13 of high school out there at Menlo Atherton,
01:15 the same high school that the Ducks found Troy Franklin at
01:18 in the Bay Area.
01:19 So he had a season ending injury,
01:21 and that was something that kind of hampered
01:23 his first year at Oregon.
01:24 And then that was also just a super crowded room.
01:27 I think it's still a crowded room this year
01:29 with guys like Gary Bryant coming back,
01:31 Tez Johnson, Treshaun Holden,
01:34 but I think there's going to be more room maybe this year,
01:36 and he's going to be a little bit more ready
01:38 to make that impact as a guy that's certainly
01:41 in the two deep.
01:43 Maybe he's your number two wide receiver on the outside.
01:47 I think he's got great speed and great ball skills,
01:50 someone who can make something happen after the catch.
01:53 I think a lot of Duck fans were bummed
01:54 that Jurion didn't see much playing time
01:57 as a true freshman,
01:57 but I think that true freshman season
01:59 was going to be really important for him,
02:01 and we should be able to see him
02:04 quite a bit more moving forward.
02:06 And okay, the number two guy that I want to go with here,
02:11 let's talk about Amari Washington.
02:12 Amari Washington was a defensive lineman
02:15 that Oregon signed at a Chandler, Arizona,
02:17 Chandler High School.
02:18 Definitely one of the better programs in the state,
02:21 kind of in the Phoenix area.
02:23 Six foot four, 295 pounds.
02:25 He was someone that I've heard
02:27 a lot of really good things about
02:28 as far as just his athleticism
02:30 and his upside at the college level,
02:33 and I think that they kind of probably want him
02:36 to play a little bit of that Brandon Dorless style of role.
02:40 I think he has a similar build.
02:41 I didn't want to say Dorless was like six three,
02:43 290, almost 300 pounds.
02:45 So you want to keep getting
02:47 those athletic defensive linemen in there
02:49 that you can move around a little bit on the front
02:54 and really make something happen, right?
02:57 So I think that Amari Washington is one of those guys
03:00 that has been kind of just buying his time a little bit
03:03 his first year in Eugene
03:04 and learning from some of those young,
03:06 some of those experienced, excuse me,
03:10 veteran defensive linemen last year.
03:12 And then another guy just sticking on that D line
03:15 'cause it was such a big group that the Ducks signed in 2023
03:20 Michael Gardner, another D lineman out of Arizona,
03:23 a little bit smaller than Amari.
03:24 He's listed at 62, 275 on the 247 sports website
03:29 just when he signed as a recruit.
03:31 So you have to figure that he's probably closer
03:34 to I would think 285, 290 pounds now
03:37 as he enters his second year within the program.
03:39 But the D line is a group that I think
03:42 is going to need some new guys to step up.
03:44 You bring in Jamari Caldwell,
03:46 the Houston defensive line transfer
03:48 from the portal.
03:49 And I expect that he's going to be a plug and play guy,
03:52 but even if Oregon doesn't add any more defensive linemen
03:56 from the portal when it opens again in the spring,
03:58 I think you have plenty of talent
04:00 already on your roster ready to go.
04:02 And I think right at the top of that list
04:04 is probably at least from the 23 class,
04:06 I think Amari Washington and Michael Gardner
04:09 are some of those guys that you have to look out for.
04:11 And then how about Ben Roberts from the 2022 class
04:14 out of the state of Utah?
04:15 I think he's a name that we need to keep an eye on
04:17 as spring football gets closer here.
04:21 Starting next month, I want to say,
04:23 we don't have an official date,
04:24 but it looks like they'll probably start in March
04:27 based on some of the conversations that I was able to have.
04:29 Let's see.
04:31 So that's three guys that didn't really play
04:33 too much of a role this past year.
04:36 Let's, I think, you know,
04:38 let's talk about Roderick Pleasant a little bit.
04:40 He had a pretty small role,
04:44 but he did play, you know, some snaps,
04:46 some decent snaps as a true freshman.
04:48 I think he was even in the two deep,
04:50 especially when Oregon was kind of banged up.
04:52 Remember, Jaleel Florence got hurt
04:54 towards the end of the season.
04:56 Kyrie Jackson had a little bit of bumps and bruises.
05:00 So we saw, and then I think Dante Manning
05:03 might've been a guy that,
05:04 it just, Oregon's rotation was pretty fluid
05:06 when it came to the cornerback spot
05:08 and things got a little bit,
05:10 I don't know if I'd say dire,
05:11 but they did get a little thin at times.
05:13 So Roderick Pleasant, I think,
05:14 is someone who really benefited from that freshman year,
05:17 seeing the field,
05:18 just being able to adjust to the speed of the game.
05:20 I don't think that's something that
05:22 was necessarily as hard for him.
05:24 And when you're a world-class sprinter,
05:26 super quick and twitchy,
05:27 I think you're a little bit more adapted
05:29 for the speed of college football.
05:31 So I think Roderick Pleasant is a guy
05:33 who can make a role, make an impact,
05:36 still in that two deep with a ton of veterans
05:39 ahead of him at corner,
05:40 but we could see some more from him this upcoming year.
05:45 Let's see, how about Jerry Mixon?
05:49 I'm gonna talk about Jerry Mixon as a guy that I think,
05:51 my fifth guy that I think could be in this two day pier
05:54 for the linebackers,
05:55 'cause you have Justin Jacobs and Jeff Bossa
05:58 coming back as your entrenched starters.
06:03 But then behind them,
06:04 I think you have a little bit more wiggle room.
06:06 You lose Jamal Hill,
06:07 and I think we'll probably see a pretty good dose
06:09 of Devin Jackson and Connor Soeli,
06:12 but Jerry Mixon is a guy who, he's super athletic.
06:16 I mean, he was playing true linebacker.
06:18 He was coming off the edge.
06:19 He was playing a running back
06:21 for the Sacred Heart Cathedral Irish
06:23 in his senior year in high school.
06:25 So he did a little bit of everything,
06:26 but I think now that he's solely focused on linebacker
06:28 and the staff is really excited about his athleticism
06:31 and his upside in Eugene,
06:34 I think he could be that fifth recruit
06:35 that we see make an impact
06:37 from the 2023 signing class at Oregon
06:40 that maybe didn't have that big of an impact as a true freshman.