Which players will step up in place of Oregon's Alamo Bowl opt-outs?
With the avalanche of Duck-related coaching news in recent weeks, it’s almost easy to forget that there’s still one more game to go for Oregon.
The Dec. 29 Alamo Bowl featuring Oregon and Oklahoma is less than a week away. While the hiring of Dan Lanning and his staff have stolen the headlines lately, there will still be plenty at stake for the Ducks in San Antonio under interim coach Bryan McClendon.
Oregon has seen a flurry of pre-bowl departures during the month of December, and its depth chart is nearly unrecognizable from its season-opening two-deep.
Kayvon Thibodeaux, Devon Williams, and Mykael Wright have opted out of the bowl game and entered the NFL Draft. DJ James and Jayson Jones have entered the transfer portal. A handful of key Ducks are still out injured.
That means some young players who haven’t necessarily found consistent playing time this season will need to take on significant roles against the Sooners.
Here is a rundown of which Ducks could step up in San Antonio.
Bradyn Swinson
Filling Kayvon Thibodeaux’s shoes won’t be an easy thing to do.
In his final season as a Duck, Thibodeaux became just the third unanimous All-American in program history. He is one of the greatest players to ever come through Eugene and will be a top-five pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.
But the player who is going to take his place has had a very good season in his own right. Freshman edge rusher Bradyn Swinson will take over the Joker role in Tim DeRuyter’s defense in San Antonio and should see a ton of snaps against the Sooners.
Swinson has flown a bit under the radar lately, but he was sensational at the start of the year while filling in for the injured Thibodeaux. Even after Oregon’s star edge rusher returned, Swinson was still a very good role player.
He has three sacks and four tackles for loss on the year but saw his productivity drop during the second half of the season.
That’s partially due to Thibodeaux’s dominant play, but also probably has something to do with the fact that Swinson got knee surgery following the Week 2 Ohio State win. He didn’t return until the Oct. 15 win over Cal and took some time to find his footing.
Swinson will arguably be one of Oregon’s most significant defensive players next season. He showed flashes of brilliance in 2021, and there aren’t many proven players behind him on the depth chart.
Next Wednesday will be a good chance for Swinson to show what he can do as Oregon’s preeminent edge rusher.
Trikweze Bridges and Dontae Manning
Losing one starting cornerback is difficult enough. Losing two would send most programs into crisis mode.
Fortunately for the Ducks, though, the cabinet is filled with talent at corner, even after the departures of DJ James and Mykael Wright. The Ducks are thin at the position, to be sure. They have just five scholarship cornerbacks left on the roster.
But the players Oregon does have in the fold are immensely talented. Dontae Manning is a former 5-star signee. Trikweze Bridges was a 4-star. They will likely be Oregon’s starting cornerbacks against Oklahoma, and could both be the long-term solution at the boundary and field spots, respectively.
The future is now for Oregon’s secondary, and it will be interesting to see how Bridges, Manning, Avante Dickerson, Darren Barkins, and Jaylin Davies fare against a good Oklahoma offense.
Maceal Afaese
The Ducks couldn’t afford to lose Jayson Jones along the interior, and his absence is made more significant by the fact that Keyon Ware-Hudson is still out injured.
For a team that was already thin along the defensive line, those losses hurt. Ware-Hudson has been very good this year. Jones played his best football toward the end of the regular season.
The player who may stand to gain the most from Jones’ departure is freshman defensive tackle Maceal Afaese. A former 4-star signee, Afaese was On3’s No. 398 overall player in the class of 2020 and may finally get a chance to break through against the Sooners.
Afaese did not play during the 2020 season, and he has played just 10 defensive snaps in 2021. But four of those snaps came against Oregon State in Week 13 and six of them came in the Pac-12 title game.
With Ware-Hudson out, Afaese has quickly ascended up the depth chart and is now listed as the No. 2 option at defensive tackle behind Kristian Williams.
Like Jones, Afaese seems to have really started to figure things out toward the end of the year. The bowl game will be an opportunity for him to close out the season with some momentum.
Isaah Crocker
A few hours before Devon Williams announced last Thursday that he intends to enter the NFL Draft, Oregon reserve receiver Isaah Crocker fired off a Tweet that now seems significant.
Crocker, a former 4-star signee and the No. 154 player in the class of 2018, has struggled for consistent playing time in his four seasons at Oregon. The sophomore barely saw the field this season and was a bit of an afterthought due to the deep talent pool Oregon had at receiver at the start of the year.
But Johnny Johnson III, Jaylon Redd, Mycah Pittman, and Williams are all out of the picture now. Crocker has soared up the depth chart and is listed as the Ducks’ No. 2 option at “X” receiver.
Troy Franklin and Dont’e Thornton are going to start at “X” and “Z” and will be the focal points of Oregon’s passing game. But no Oregon receiver will benefit more from Williams’ departure than Crocker, who is now going to be counted on to play meaningful snaps.
