Oregon Football: Portal Update – Addicted To Quack

The winter transfer portal window is set to close tomorrow on December 28^th. We here at Addicted to Quack wanted to provide a big picture update on Oregon’s portal activity this December. This off-season Hythloday will continue his Quacking the Roster series by doing a deep dive on the film of each individual player transferring to Oregon. This update is meant to be a summary of who has left the Ducks and who will be joining the Ducks in 2025.

First a quick summary of how the winter window works. When a player decides to enter the transfer portal, they must inform their university, which is required to submit the necessary information within 48 hours. This means that we could hear of players entering the portal all the way until December 30^th. This deadline is only a deadline for entering the portal. Once a player is in the Transfer portal they have no deadline on exiting the portal, A.K.A committing and transferring to a new team. It is also worth noting that should a head coach leave or be fired from their position with a school, a team specific transfer portal window will open for 30 days where players from that school specifically can enter the transfer portal. These are the two elements of the portal that make tracking the portal an entire off-season long project, and the reason Hythloday attempts to write his team preview articles in reverse order of roster stability.

First let’s start with the Ducks who have entered the transfer portal with the intention of transferring to another school.

Departures

Tyler Turner SO S

Turner committed to the Ducks out of high school in the 2023 recruiting class. A mid 3* Turner had started earning some reps during meaningful play in the safety rotation this season. Had he stayed with Oregon I figured he would be a shoo-in to be at the very least a rotational player next season, if not a starter.

JacQawn McRoy FR OT

McRoy committed to the Ducks out of high school in the 2024 recruiting class. A high 4* the Ducks likely had big plans for McRoy to eventually become a starting Tackle. Had he stayed with the Ducks he would have a small but unlikely chance of becoming a starter in 2025 with both Ajani Cornelius and Josh Conerly heading to the NFL.

E’mar’rion Winston JR EDGE

Winston committed to the Ducks out of high school in the 2022 recruiting class. As a low 4* Winston was in the primary rotation this season as the rush end line-backer and figured to be in the same role next season had he stayed with the Ducks. However, despite a clear path to play time the path to be a starter for next season was likely blocked by both Matayo Uiagalelei and Teitum Tuioti who will both be returning next season. This will be a common theme among the transfers leaving Oregon this cycle.

Jaxson Jones FR EDGE

Jones committed to the Ducks out of high school in the 2024 recruiting class. As a High 3* freshmen Jones was quite low on the Ducks depth chart this season and I don’t believe he played any snaps during meaningful play and very likely preserved his Redshirt. Jones is the second player that I believe the Ducks lost this cycle due to Matayo Uiagalelei and Teitum Tuioti both returning as the very likely starters next season. Unlike the case with Winston, Jones likely had a hard path to meaningful playing time as he appeared to be lower on the depth chart this season than guys like Ashton Porter and Blake Purchase who figure to also be returning next season.

Khamari Terrell JR CB

Terrell committed to the Ducks out of high school in the 2022 recruiting class as a Low 4* and played sparingly every year he has been at Oregon. As an experienced veteran Terrell likely would have been in a future position battle against the younger but more talented corners Oregon has recruited out of high school in the last 3 cycles.

Jaeden Moore SO EDGE

Moore committed to the Ducks out of high school in the 2023 recruiting class as a high 3* and seemed to have earned some play time recently as a rotational player on the edge of the D-Line. However, just as was the case with Emar’rion Winston, despite having a clear path to playing time next year, the path to becoming a starter was blocked by Uiaglalelei and Tuioti.

Transfer Portal Usage

If High school recruiting is the equivalent to drafting in professional sports, then the transfer portal is the equivalent of free agency. The very best teams are the best teams at high school recruiting and drafting and then use the portal and free agency to plug holes in the roster and add difference making players when they become available.

In Dan Lanning’s first 3 transfer portal cycles he has used the portal to accomplish two goals

1. Overhauled various defensive position groups to find better fits to his defensive scheme

a. Entering his 4^th season at Oregon I believe all levels of the defense will consistent entirely of players Dan Lanning has recruited

2. Increase the overall talent floor of the team from an already high level that Mario Cristobal had assembled

a. Here are Oregon’s high school recruiting class rankings the last 3 cycles:

b. Year – National Rank – Oregon school history rank

i. 2023 – 9^th – 5^th

ii. 2024 – 3^rd – 1^st

iii. 2025 – 5^th – 2^nd

The difference between the current Transfer Portal class Oregon is recruiting as opposed to Dan Lanning’s previous Transfer Portal classes is that I believe Oregon has reached the point, due to strong high school recruiting, that there is not a need to overhaul any defensive position groups and, because the overall talent of the roster is so high now, that most players in the transfer portal will not increase the talent level of the team.

As a result, I suspect that Oregon’s use of the transfer portal will not be as high this season and going forward, as the previous 3 transfer portal cycles.

I believe Oregon’s future transfer portal commits will either be:

1. Filling a one season positional need

2. A rare player that will increase the talent level of the team

With that being the case lets quickly dive into the players that have already committed to transfer to Oregon.

Arrivals

Dillon Thieneman JR S

Thieneman was a mid to high 3 star that played his first two seasons of college football at Purdue. If you haven’t heard anything about him don’t let his high school rating and the awful season Purdue just had led you astray, Thieneman is an excellent player who improves the overall talent level of the team and will likely be a starter in the secondary next season. He was a starter as a true freshmen at Purdue as there “sky-high” safety in Ryan Walters defensive scheme. As Hythloday noted in his Purdue season preview he graded out excellently as a true freshman.

But he was asked to play other safety spots this season due to Purdue’s historic struggles on defense and wasn’t as effective

Theran Johnson SR CB

Johnson was a high 3* all the way back in the 2021 class with Northwestern. He will come to Oregon as a Redshirt Senior who has started at Northwestern the past two seasons. At the very least Oregon found themselves a more than capable Big Ten starting corner for next season. If any of the younger blue-chip corners are ready to play next season, they will at the very least need to exceed a high floor that Johnson brings.

Alex Harkey JR OT

Harkey was a low 3* in the 2022 class with Colorado where he red-shirted his freshmen year and then transferred to Texas State when Deion Sanders became the coach of the Buffaloes. He has spent the last two seasons with the Bobcats where this most recent season he was 3^rd team all Sun-belt but was also named Sun Belt offensive linemen of the year (Because that makes sense). With both Ajani Corenelius and Josh Conerly heading off to the NFL next season Harkey has a clear path to be a starting tackle for the Ducks even as a transfer offensive linemen.

Jamari Johnson JR TE

Johnson was a mid-4* in the 2023 recruiting class with Louisville. He played in 5 games his true freshmen year accumulating no receiving stats and then played in 7 games this past season averaging just under 2 receptions per game. He figures to be the primary back-up for Kenyon Sadiq next season which in Will Stein’s offense is an important role given how Will likes to utilize Tight Ends to take advantage of how opposing defenses substitute.

Isaiah World SR OT

World was a low 3* in the 2021 recruiting class for Nevada. He comes to Oregon as a Senior looking to improve his draft stock at a bigger school in his final year of eligibility. He was honorable mention ALL Mountain West this season. Like Harkey he has a clear path to becoming a starter with both Cornelius and Conerly leaving after this season.

I’ll be interested to see what Hythloday’s film has to say around the two transfer tackles. As we all know, transfer O-line men always have a drop-off in performance in their first year at the new school. Oregon’s only other options to be starting tackles next season would all be either Sophomores or Freshmen next season. Which means Oregon will be starting a pair of transfer Tackles, young Tackles, or combination of the two. Either way, next season Alique Terry will really be put to the test in assembling the best possible O-Line for the 2025 season and this will be my biggest question going into the 2025 season.

Bear Alexander DL

Alexander was a high 4 star in the 2022 recruiting class for Georgia. After some rumors of a locker-room issues among Bear and his Bulldog teammates he transferred to USC in the spring of 2023. Bear would go on to be one of the very lone bright spots on the historically bad 2023 USC defense. This season he played in the first 4 games of the season before electing to sit the remainder of the year to preserve his redshirt and re-enter the transfer portal. This time he and his father left less to the imagination for why he was deciding to transfer.

With Bear’s transfer commitment to Oregon, I’ve seen fans make the comparison to Evan Stewart. A player who was leaving his previous school with questions of character following him to Eugene. Evan by all accounts appears to have become a great teammate. He will go stretches of games with few or hardly any targets but when called upon he has delivered and come up big. It’s two different people and two different situations. This will be Bear’s 3^rd college team he will play for, which tells me that if he can’t make it work at Oregon his football career might be jeopardy.

From the perspective of Oregon some writers have said this might be Dan Lanning’s biggest test of the culture has built at Oregon. I’m not sure I see it exactly that way. Dan has done such a good job building talent in all of the position rooms that I think Oregon is in the very enviable position where they can take guys like Bear and it’s a low-risk high-reward proposition for the team. If Bear does put it all together well then great, the Ducks have another highly effective player on the interior of the D-Line. If Bear does not uphold to the standard of Oregon football though it is by no means the end of the world. Next season the Ducks will have Amauri Washington returning after another offseason of development as well as 3 blue-chip recruits on the interior entering either the 2^nd or 3^rd season with the Ducks. Because Oregon is in a place where players like Bear Alexander are a great add but not absolutely completely necessary it can allow Oregon to take chances on guys. If it doesn’t work out, I’m still confident in the interior D-Line the Ducks will have next season.