One hundred days until the kickoff of Oregon football, it's the time of year where every website and podcast has an opinion about every team and where they'll finish.
The Ducks are predicted to finish anywhere from 6-6 to 13-0 and one of the perceived weaknesses the various experts point to is an inexperienced secondary.
Oregon sent seven members of their secondary to NFL camps this spring, prompting many to think the Ducks will be too green and inexperienced going into 2025:
Ducks D-backs at NFL mini-camps
Safety Tysheem Johnson - Chicago Bears
Safety Brandon Johnson - Philadelphia Eagles
Cornerback Jabbar Muhammad - Jacksonville Jaguars
Cornerback Dontae Manning - Atlanta Falcons
Cornerback Nikko Reed - Los Angeles Chargers
Safety Kobe Savage- San Francisco 49ers
Cornerback Kam Alexander- Seattle Seahawks
Though it's a long road from an NFL mini-camp invite to a spot on a pro roster, this does represent a significant talent drain for defensive backs coach and co-defensive coordinator Chris Hampton.
What the list doesn't account for is how well the Oregon staff has planned for this. The spring game showed that a major upgrade is in progress.
The Oregon secondary is longer, faster, and more athletic in 2025. They're going to make more plays on the ball.
Fans saw Trey McNutt, Jahlil Florence, Na'eem Offord, Ify Obidegwu and Dillon Thieneman make pass breakups in the Spring Game. This group has superior ball skills, and what's more, they find and play the ball.
It's been maddening over the last several years to see Duck defenders get lost in one-on-one pass coverage, with their heads turned around or worse, receivers wide open and cruising to the end zone.
The first play from scrimmage in the Spring Game was a breakup by Dillon Thieneman on a pass to 5-star wide receiver Dakorien Moore.
There's a bevy of young stars in the Oregon secondary, blue-chip, Top 100 recruits like Offord, McNutt, Obidegwu and Brandon Finney, Peyton Woodyard, Aaron Flowers and Kingston Lopa.
Lopa is 6-5, 200. Cornerback Sione Laulea is 6-4, 190. The Ducks have ten guys on the back end listed at six-foot or taller.
The naysayers point to their relative inexperience, but what that ignores is the core of veterans the Ducks can rely on to provide leadership and communication in the secondary.
Thieneman, transfers Theran Johnson from Northwestern and Jadon Canaday from Ole Miss each have two years as starters performing at a high level, and Florence has logged 19 games in an Oregon uniform with 9 starts. After an injury kept him out of the lineup in 2024, he's ready to go.
Another key reason why this secondary will be a strength is that every day they will go against Oregon's fast, deep wide receiver crew. If a player can break up passes intended for Evan Stewart, Dakorien Moore and Kenyon Sadiq, he can guard anybody.