While spring ball has come to a close in Eugene, the Oregon Ducks still have a handful of significant roles up for grabs on both sides of the ball. <\/p>\n
The ScoopDuck staff is breaking down Oregon\u2019s three most important defensive position battles ahead of fall camp. <\/p>\n
Oregon\u2019s cornerback room appears to be in a much better place than it was when the 2022 season came to an end. <\/p>\n
But it\u2019s still unclear dary who will ultimately be the program\u2019s starting field and boundary corners next fall. <\/p>\n
Trikweze Bridges is back after starting at boundary cornerback for the Ducks last year. From a sheer experience standpoint, he would seem to be the most natural fit to replace Christian Gonzalez as Oregon\u2019s starting field corner. <\/p>\n
But Bridges spent the spring repping at safety, too, and his skill set could be better suited to stick at boundary corner, where he performed well in 2022. <\/p>\n
Former 5-star signee Dontae Manning is entering his fourth season with the program and could be poised to step into a starting life after a strong showing during spring ball. He could be in the mix to start at either corner spot. Jahlil Florence was Oregon\u2019s most impactful defensive freshman last season and will also be in the mix to start. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s possible that the Ducks\u2019 No. 1 option at field corner could be Alabama transfer Khyree Jackson.<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n With Noah Sewell, Justin Flowe, Jackson LaDuke, and Keith Brown all gone from last year\u2019s roster, Oregon is in the midst of overhauling its inside linebacker room. <\/p>\n It\u2019s safe to say that junior Jeffrey Bassa will likely lock down one of the starting jobs in the middle of the Ducks\u2019 defense. He was second on the team in tackles last season and could be poised to take a big step forward in his second season as a starter. <\/p>\n At this point, Iowa transfer Jestin Jacobs seems to be the most likely candidate to start alongside Bassa. <\/p>\n But Arizona State transfer Connor Soelle and converted safety Jamal Hill are both going to see plenty of playing time next fall, too. <\/p>\n As was the case last season, Oregon features a couple of intriguing, versatile options at nickel. <\/p>\n Bennett Williams excelled in the role last season and also played plenty at box safety. In order to replace the standout senior, Dan Lanning and Tosh Lupoi added Ole Miss transfer Tysheem Johnson via the transfer portal during the offseason. <\/p>\n Like Williams, Johnson is capable of occupying a few different roles. Last season, he played 230 snaps<\/a><\/strong> at box safety, 217 at nickel, and 142 at free safety. <\/p>\n During spring ball, fourth-year sophomore JJ Greenfield made a compelling case for playing time. A former 3-star signee who left the program during the 2021 season, Greenfield re-joined the Ducks in spring 2022 as a walk-on and could prove to be a valuable piece of Oregon\u2019s secondary next fall. <\/p>\n The X-factor for Oregon at nickel could be true freshman Cole Martin. A 4-star signee who was the No. 215 overall prospect in the \u201923 class, Martin stole the show<\/a><\/strong> during the Ducks\u2019 April 29 spring game. <\/p>\n While Oregon features no shortage of veteran options in the secondary, Martin may prove too valuable to keep of the field next season. <\/p>\n The post Oregon\u2019s three most important post-spring defensive position battles<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While spring ball has come to a close in Eugene, the Oregon Ducks still have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Inside linebacker<\/h2>\n
Nickel <\/h2>\n