After the massive amount of turnover that has taken place inside the Oregon Ducks football program, it’s fair for fans to have a number of questions going forward. The Ducks got an entirely new coaching staff, brought in a QB from the transfer portal who looks to be in line for the starting job, and lost a handful of talented players both to the NFL draft and the transfer portal as well.
Dan Lanning is a first-time head coach — will he be in over his head? Oregon’s secondary features only one returning starter — will that weakness be detrimental? The wide receiver corp is young and unproven — will that slow down the offense? All of those are valid questions and ones that need to be asked, but they don’t touch on what The Athletic’s Christian Caple wanted most to figure out about the Ducks going into the 2022 season:
If it’s Bo Nix at QB, can he elevate the Ducks’ passing game?
Sure, Oregon has plenty of talent to replace in the secondary, but there are some promising faces there, and the Ducks’ defensive front should be nasty enough to cover any growing pains on the back end. Nix hasn’t officially been named the starting quarterback, with heralded 2021 signee Ty Thompson still in the mix, but the safe money at present is on the Auburn transfer taking the reins. Does he have what it takes for Oregon’s passing game to take a step under first-year head coach Dan Lanning?
It’s not as if the Ducks’ offense was bad in 2021 en route to another Pac-12 North title. They ranked third in the conference in both scoring and yards per play (39th and 42nd nationally), but the passing game still lacked the kind of consistency and explosiveness you need to reliably compete for College Football Playoff consideration. The pieces are in place for the running game: CJ Verdell turned pro and Travis Dye transferred, but Byron Cardwell and Sean Dollars should have plenty of room behind a big, experienced offensive line. The question is whether Nix,…
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