Undervalued Oregon Stars are Putting the NFL on Notice

The NFL world is in love with former Oregon Duck Tez Johnson. It could be the hilarious MVP chant clip, or the acrobatics after a score, but the young wide receiver is all over social media for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season.

How did the explosive pass catcher slip all the way to the 7^th round? This isn’t a one-off situation. The NFL has been severely undervaluing Duck players on offense for years now.

Whether it’s Troy Franklin with the Broncos, Bucky Irving with Tampa Bay, or Kenjon Barner all the way back in 2013, this has been going on for a while. Why doesn’t the NFL see the obvious talent of these players?

Tez Johnson is lighting it up

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers took a wide receiver in the first round of the 2025 draft, but it wasn’t Tez Johnson. They selected Emeka Egbuka with the 19^th pick out of Ohio State. This was not a bad pick by any means. He is currently 9^th in the league with 677 yards and he’s tied for 4^th in touchdowns with 6.

Egbuka has been living up to the WR1 title with Mike Evans out for almost the entire season with injuries, but here comes Tez Johnson. He’s in a 22-way tie for 23^rd in the league with 4 touchdowns this season, and he’s 92^nd with 255 yards with only 30 targets on the year.

PFF has Tez as the 35^th best WR in the league with an offensive grade of 72.5 and the 39^th best receiving grade. Not too shabby for a guy taken as the 235^th pick in the 7^th round.

There were 26 receivers taken before Tez in the 2025 NFL draft. Travis Hunter was the first off the board with the #2 pick. Hunter only has 1 touchdown this season and 298 yards on 15 more targets. PFF ranks him as the 79^th best receiver with a 62.2 offensive grade and the 77^th best receiver grade (62.7).

Why did Tez drop to the bottom of the draft?

The main concern was his weight. Tez was measured as 5’10 and 154 pounds, which most draft analysts worried was too small to be successful in the league. What really sunk him was his 40 time at the NFL combine. He had a 4.51 time which many experts felt was too slow for a guy his size. They felt like he didn’t fit an archetype.

According to the A to Z Sports Film Room, “we are talking about a undersized historically
wide receiver that also isn’t a burner by all those metrics right that worries you because ultimately this is an outlier and an outlier of the most epic proportions.”

The thing is, if you watch Tez you can plainly see that he has speed. He has amazing burst and is able to navigate in traffic to use that speed to break away.

Tez Johnson smashing buttons on his way to the end zone 😮

Gets the hurdle, hits the spin move and dives in for 6⃣pic.twitter.com/RgoLmX3ZUB

— NFL Fantasy Football (@NFLFantasy) October 21, 2025

The main thing to keep an eye from Tez is how does he add weight to his frame and can he stay healthy over 17 games.

Troy Franklin Proving Doubters Wrong

Similar to Johnson, there wasn’t much hype about Troy Franklin coming out of Oregon. He was taken in the 4^th round with the 102^nd pick, and there were 16 receivers taken before him.

What was interesting is that Franklin had a more prolific statistical career than Johnson at Oregon. He finished the 2023 season with 1,383 yards (6^th in the country) and 14 touchdowns (3^rd). Johnson only had 898 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2024, partially because he missed time with an injury.

Franklin faced similar concerns as Johnson about his weight. NFLdraftbuzz.com wrote this in his draft profile, “Despite his speed and crafty route-running, Franklin’s skinny frame presents some challenges. He can struggle with press coverage, especially against bigger DBs who can easily outmuscle him, and his effectiveness in contested catch situations can be inconsistent.”

He had a slow rookie season, where he only had 28 receptions, 263 yards, and 2 touchdowns in 16 games. This season, however, he’s one of Denver’s best weapons and he’s starting to show why he was so prolific with Oregon. In 2025 he has 42 receptions, 425 yards, and 5 touchdowns for the Broncos.

Troy Franklin with a receiving touchdown. pic.twitter.com/V3asdaBk7D

— Ethan Gaile (@gaile_ethan) October 26, 2025

His yardage is 47^th in the league, but his yards after catch (YAC) is 36^th with 201 on the season. PFF has him as the 77^th best receiver with an offensive grade of 62.4 and the 75^th best receiving grade of 64. He and Bo Nix have an amazing connection that has carried over from college.

Bucky Irving is Another Star Buc

Finally, we have Bucky Irving. His 2025 season hasn’t gone to plan with a shoulder injury that has kept Irving out of the lineup for Tampa Bay since a week 4 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.  

His rookie season, though, was a smashing success. He was named to the All-Rookie team and he was the week 13 NFC offensive player of the week. Bucky finished the 2024 season with 1,122 rushing yards and 393 receiving yards, as well as 8 touchdowns. Not bad for the 125^th pick in the 2024 draft.

BUCKY IRVING 72-YARD TD

PHIvsTB on FOX/FOX Onehttps://t.co/HkKw7uXnxV pic.twitter.com/a4mwpvFFUz

— NFL (@NFL) September 28, 2025

There weren’t as many running backs taken early in 2024, so Irving ended up being the 6^th RB off the board after 4 rounds.  He faced similar negative comments as Tez and Troy Franklin though, as NFLdraftbuzz.com wrote that they had, “Concerns over his lighter frame’s ability to handle increased bulk without losing speed.”

Bucky was off to another solid start for 2025 with 278 rushing yards and 193 receiving yards to go with 2 touchdowns for Tampa Bay. He was struggling a little bit on the ground, with only a 3.3 yards per carry. That was down from the 5.4 AVG that he had in 2024. Hopefully he can get healthy and finish the season strong.

The Ducks have a Type

Clearly from the pre-draft feedback and the type of frame that these three guys possess, the Oregon Ducks have a type that they like to seek out. Those twitchy players who have elusiveness and burst speed. We can already see that with Dakorien Moore this season.

While Tez and Troy were taken later in the draft and saw many players at their position taken ahead of them, maybe their success will open some eyes. It’s time the league finally recognize the talent that Oregon has at their skill positions, whether it’s Bo Nix, Bucky Irving, Tez Johnson, or Troy Franklin.

We can already see the next generation of explosive weapons coming down the pike. How much will the NFL value Moore and Dierre Hill Jr?