Why Oregon will win the PAC

Continuity on the Roster

Despite losing head coach Mario Cristobal, star defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux and running back Travis Dye, Oregon returns many of its players from last year. Linebacker Justin Flowe is healthy for the first time in his career at Oregon and Noah Sewell returns. Bennett Williams, Dontae Manning, and Brandon Dorlus will all return on the defensive side as well. Offensively, the roster is filled with talent at the skill positions that is ready to step up. New head coach Dan Lanning will have a lot of players to work with that have already played with each other such as Kris Hutson, Byron Cardwell, and Donte Thornton.

Upgrade at QB

Last year the quarterback position was a major question mark throughout the season for the Ducks. Anthony Brown showed solid flashes, but often was inconsistent. Brown made questionable throws and turned the ball over at bad times during the season. One big issue with the Duck’s offense was that the playbook was never opened up, and we mostly saw simple short passes and runs from Oregon. Either Bo Nix or Ty Thompson will have superior arm talent than Brown had. There have also been indications that new offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham is willing to air it out more. More creativity on offense with a superior signal caller will be a welcome sign for the Ducks.

New Defensive Scheme

in 2021, the Oregon defense often looked lost despite having a lot of talent. Although the defense routinely forced turnovers and performed well in the red zone, the Ducks gave up a ton of yards throughout the season. One big reason for this was defensive scheme, with Oregon playing a lot of zone coverage. With a new defensive minded head coach in Dan Lanning, it is likely the Oregon defense will play a lot more man coverage and be more aggressive this season. Oregon will use the scheme that made Georgia absolutely dominant on defense last season and for the majority of Lanning’s tenure as Georgia defensive coordinator.