Dante Moore opens up on Evan Stewart injury for Oregon: 'Hurts my soul'

The Oregon Ducks have high hopes for the 2025 season. Led by new quarterback Dante Moore, the Ducks are hoping to make another College Football Playoff run. For the time being, though, that will be without wide receiver Evan Stewart.

Stewart went down with an injury earlier in the offseason. He’d be diagnosed with a tear in his patellar tendon. That injury came in June and has had a profound effect on Moore and the rest of the offense, which now needs to find a way to pick up the slack.

“Yeah, it hurts my soul just understanding how he’s doing and him not being here,” Dante Moore said. “But, like I said, we have a great receiver room still.”

Evan Stewart came to Oregon as a transfer from Texas A&M ahead of the 2024 season. In his first year with the Ducks, he played in 13 games and had 48 receptions for 613 yards and five touchdowns. That would be second on the team in receptions, third in receiving yards, and tied for second in touchdowns on the team. Tez Johnson and Traeshon Holden, the two receivers who shared the most production at Oregon with Stewart, are both in the NFL now.

Undeniably, there are going to be some questions about who will replace the production Evan Stewart was set to account for. However, Dante Moore isn’t concerned about that, explaining that the Ducks have options to replace him.

“We have a lot of great playmakers. A lot of guys with not much experience. I feel like that’s how the whole team is, though. Everybody’s hungry, everybody’s ready to compete, and everybody’s ready to make sure they’re getting better every day,” Moore said. “But it’s the University of Oregon. We have playmakers here. So, might as well get used to getting them players out there playing, and he’s still a huge piece of this offense, but I feel like we have other playmakers as well to make sure we get there.”

Depending on the severity of the torn patellar tendon and how Evan Stewart’s recovery progresses, there is some chance for a return during the season. Typically, it’s an injury that takes between three months and a year to recover from. Despite that, Stewart has pushed back on having a public timeline for his recovery.

Evan Stewart shares update on rehab process following surgery

The recovery process is never easy following surgery. Earlier in July, Evan Stewart took to Instagram. There, he opened up about the rehab process and admitted it’s been difficult on him mentally.

“Mentally, it’s just been long,” Stewart said in the short clip. “It’s just a bunch of time occupied…”

As of now, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning doesn’t want to put a timeline on Evan Stewart’s recovery. Obviously, the team, quarterback Dante Moore, and fans all want him back as quickly as possible. For now, though, he’ll need to continue to focus on his rehab if he wants to get back on the field.