Alarm bells for Oregon? Injured WR1 likely out for 2025 season
Ducks' lone returning skill-position starter out indefinitely
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A year ago, Oregon stood poised to storm through the Big Ten, grab the 2024 conference title, and post a regular-season win over eventual national champ Ohio State.
This summer, a very different reality sets in for Dan Lanning’s squad. Oregon preps for its 2025 conference title defense with a season-ending knee injury taking out the Ducks' only returning starter at the offensive skill positions.
Are alarm bells ringing for Oregon? Zero returning starters at the offensive skill positions — A bind like this can’t be comfortable, even in Nike boxer briefs.
Draft attrition
Months before the June knee injury suffered by Oregon WR1 Evan Stewart, Oregon saw a program-record 12 players invited to the NFL Combine.
At the offensive skill positions, Oregon's 2025 Draft class took:
QB1 Dillon Gabriel — Draft
WR1 Tez Johnson — Draft
TE1 Terrance Ferguson — Draft
RB1 Jordan James — Draft
WR2 Traeshon Holden — Free Agent
WR3 Evan Stewart — INJURED (knee)
Oregon's 2024 WR3 Stewart was the Ducks' only returning starter at any offensive skill position — until the June knee injury, reported as a torn patellar tendon with a recovery window of typically 6-12 months.
Starting with the obvious: These are the offensive weapons that powered Oregon to that explosive 13‑0 run in 2024, and Oregon is now faced with replacing every single position.
QB: Gabriel played every meaningful snap for Oregon in 2024.
TE: Ferguson took his career production of 1,537 yards and 16 TDs to the NFL.
RB: Jordan James bulldozed his way to 1,267 rush yards with 15 TDs in 2024, earning himself a fifth-round Draft selection.
Receivers: Tez Johnson and Traeshon Holden combined for more than 1,600 receiving yards in 2024.
In short, Lanning lost his QB, primary TE, lead RB, and top two Receivers to the Draft. Then lost his returning WR3 to a season-ending knee injury.
That level of attrition is staggering, even for a program recruiting as well as Lanning's Oregon squad.
Stewart's 2024 production
Prior to the June knee injury, which likely rules him out for 2025, Stewart looked to be Oregon's primary target in the passing game. In 2024, he made 48 catches for 613 yards and five TDs.
Stewart came through for the Ducks in some of Oregon's clutch moments in 2024, with highs of 112 yards in the near-miss win over Boise State and 149 yards in the win over visiting Ohio State on Oct. 12.
He's almost certain to qualify for a medical redshirt and a return in 2026 — assuming he can play again at a high level. Either way, that’s little help to an Oregon offense now desperately in need of high performers for 2025.
Oregon depth chart
Past Stewart, Oregon also returns semi-starters TE Kenyon Sadiq (308 yards in 2024) and WR Justius Lowe (203 yards).
Sadiq technically isn't a returning starter, but the Junior TE played in every Oregon game since he joined the Ducks out of high school — 28 game appearances in his two seasons, highlighted by posterizing Penn State with a sideline hurdle for a 28-yard touchdown in the 2024 Big Ten Championship game. He was Oregon's fifth-leading receiver in 2024.
Lowe returns with an increasingly likely shot at a full-time starting role after five starts in 2024.
Third and fourth in Oregon's returning production are RBs Noah Whittington (136 yards) and Jayden Limar (71 yards).
Long story short, Oregon heads into the 2025 season with zero returning starters at QB, Receiver, TE, or RB. That’s hardly the blueprint for a program with Top‑5 aspirations.
QB Dante Moore (UCLA transfer), Florida State transfer Receiver Malik Benson, and Tulane transfer RB Makhi Hughes can potentially help fill about half of Oregon's first-team vacancies.
Freshman X-factor
For Oregon, and for freshman WR Dakorien Moore, there has to be a shift in the conversation about 2025's No. 1 target for presumptive QB1 Dante Moore.
No sugarcoating it, Draft attrition and Stewart's injury put Oregon's Receiver room in a bind for first-string talent, and put the 2025 recruiting class on the spot.
Stewart's injury increases attention on the Day 1 readiness of true freshman Dakorien Moore:
5-star WR from Duncanville, Texas
5-foot-11, 182 pounds
The nation's No. 4 player overall
No. 1 WR in the 2025 class
Top 4 signing class
Oregon signed the No. 4 class nationally, flipping the top WR & OL high school prospects.
The reality is, as Oregon OC Will Stein sets personnel packages, Dakorien Moore will at minimum get a look for three- and four-Receiver sets.
Once the college season kicks off, it's never a matter of star ratings or recruit rankings.
Especially in the playoff era, the college season isn't a matter of on-paper talent — it’s a season-long grind, from the heat of August openers to the playoff pressure of January.
Oregon's offense either finds a way to produce, or watches the real national title race unfold without the Ducks — Again.
Can Oregon reach the CFP?
Make no mistake, the 2025 season will ask a lot from Oregon's as-yet untested next generation of talent. Can Oregon factor in a playoff race that favors at most one regular-season loss? Short answer: Maybe. But Oregon really isn't in an enviable position.
What's certain is Oregon's 2025 offense will look radically different. Draft-level talent will be replaced by young athletes with clear potential — but unproven production.
In the early weeks of the season, Oregon will have the benefit of building an unscouted attack. Maintaining an edge for the long haul won't benefit from that element of surprise.
Oregon's margin for error is microscopic. An early slip or a midseason Big Ten setback would bet the likely bets to derail the Ducks.
Games aren't played on paper
On paper, Oregon is still one of college football’s most talented rosters. Lanning is a proven coach. The defense returns key pieces at Edge and LB. But the offense is so unproven.
It's a coin flip whether Oregon's incoming class can break through from Day 1 — And it’s a razor-thin margin for error, with the road tests of the conference opener in Game 3 and a Penn State whiteout looming on the Ducks’ September schedule.
When Dante Moore finds consistency, when Dakorien Moore, Benson, and Hughes rise, when Lowe, Sadiq, and others mature, Oregon can be a playoff-caliber team. But will that all gel in 2025? That would be the most effective offensive rebuild in the playoff era for any national contender we’ve seen.
Oregon’s 2025 season is far from a lost cause, but it starts in uncharted territory with a lot more questions than answers. Alarm bells are ringing for Oregon — loud and clear.
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