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Oregon Ducks Breakout Player #5 - Bradyn Swinson

Joel Picby: Joel Gunderson08/31/21

Continuing the burgeoning trend of plucking slightly-underrated defensive lineman from the south, Bradyn Swinson’s arrival in Eugene in 2020 made few ripples at the time. Still, by the end of the tumultuous season, it was apparent Oregon had found a potential gem.

The time for his impact may be here, far sooner than anyone expected.

“(He) was probably the player that took the biggest jump of anybody at any position,” Oregon coach Mario Cristobal said when discussing Swinson’s play. “That’s Bradyn Swinson; he did it the run game setting edges, he did it in the run game taking on double teams, which when you’re a freshman and you’re an edge player that’s one of the most difficult things that you have to do. When you’re called upon to do that, and you’ve never done it before, at least not with guys that know what they’re doing (and) where they’re going, it’s very difficult. He did a great job with that. As a pass rusher, he continues to progress more and more and more.”

A slimmed-down Swinson — he’s listed at 234 pounds, down from 280 when he first arrived — could be a nightmare for the opposition, as he looks beefed up compared to his frame last season. Thanks to Aaron Feld and the strength staff, the trimming of body fat and the addition of fast-twitch muscle have him feeling like a new player altogether.

Swinson’s 2020 stats were modest; he recorded just three tackles and one pass breakup, but his on-field presence was praised. Rarely out of place or overwhelmed, the Douglasville, Georgia native took to then-coordinator Andy Avalos’s system quickly. Now with Tim DeRuyter in as the new man in charge, Swinson appears to be right there, ready for an enhanced role.

“Brayden’s right there,” DeRuyter said recently. “We’re always trying to develop depth. There’s not much of a drop-off from our ones to our twos to our threes, and he’s battling to be a starter for us. So to have that competition’s gonna keep everybody sharp.”

And as his head coach sees it, Swinson fits the criteria of what Oregon needs to take the program to the next level. On the defensive line, Oregon can never have enough size and length.

Swinson gives them just that.

“Bradyn is an exceptional athlete for a large guy,” Cristobal said. “He’s explosive; he’s long; he’s got a lot of range. The guy can bend; tremendous flexibility. … He’s putting it all together now.”

Just in time, too. Because as valuable as he could be in 2021, the reps he gets and the impact he makes will all be a warmup to 2022, when Oregon loses Kayvon Thibodeaux to the NFL.

By then, Swinson will no longer be looking to break out but to solidify his place among the Ducks’ lineage of talent heading to the big leagues.

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