Oregon Ducks: 5 Players to Watch in 2026
By Owain Jones
Few programs in college football can match the Oregon Ducks. The sheer depth, recruiting pedigree, and NFL potential assembled by Dan Lanning is exactly why the standard in Eugene has changed. Ten-win seasons no longer move the needle. Conference titles are expected. College Football Playoff appearances are appreciated, but no longer enough.
Not with this roster. Fans expect National Championship contention. After another semifinal run in 2025, Oregon enters 2026 with one of the most complete teams in the sport and a quarterback who could already be playing on Sundays.
Narrowing Oregon down to five players almost feels unfair. But if they are going to finish the job, these five players may define whether Oregon’s most talented roster yet becomes its most accomplished.
Oregon’s National Championship hopes became a lot more real the moment Dante Moore decided to stay.
Moore could have entered the 2026 NFL Draft and, in the eyes of many evaluators, likely heard his name called somewhere in the top three. Instead, the former five-star quarterback made the increasingly rare decision to come back to school, betting that one more year in Eugene could sharpen his game and elevate both his legacy and draft stock.
The numbers already look like those of a future first-rounder. Moore threw for 3,565 yards and 30 touchdowns in 2025 while completing 71.8 percent of his passes, leading Oregon to the College Football Playoff semifinal and earning Orange Bowl Offensive MVP honors.
Only four Oregon quarterbacks (Bo Nix, Marcus Mariota, Dillon Gabriel, Akili Smith) have ever thrown for 3,500 yards in a season, placing Moore in elite company before his final campaign has even begun.
The arm talent has never been in question. The next step is the details. Pocket discipline. Post-snap patience. Winning when the first read disappears.
If Moore takes that leap, Oregon may have the best quarterback in college football and the clearest path to a title.
Sometimes a year away changes everything. It sharpens perspective. It creates hunger. It gives elite players something to prove.
Evan Stewart never played a snap in 2025 after suffering a torn patellar tendon during summer workouts, an injury serious enough that simply walking down stairs again became part of the recovery journey.
Now he is back.
And if spring reports are any indication, Oregon may be getting back far more than just another receiver.
Before the injury, Stewart looked every bit like one of the most explosive playmakers in the Big Ten, finishing 2024 with 48 catches, 613 yards, and five touchdowns while consistently threatening defenses vertically and after the catch.
More importantly for Oregon, his chemistry with Moore appears to have grown during the rehab process rather than disappeared. OregonLive reports that “ The two often eat breakfast together, […] and sit with each other at church on Sundays.”
If Stewart is winning outside again by September, Oregon’s offense may become almost impossible to defend.
Oregon had a tight end drafted in the first round in 2026. And they may have had another drafted in the top 50 had Jamari Johnson declared.
With Kenyon Sadiq now in the NFL after hearing his name called inside the top 20 of the 2026 draft, Johnson steps into one of the most valuable roles in Oregon’s offense with genuine breakout expectations, and he already showed flashes in 2025.
In his first season with the Ducks after transferring from the Louisville Cardinals, Johnson caught 32 passes for 510 yards and three touchdowns while playing all 15 games and producing in every phase of the offense.
He recorded a reception in each of Oregon’s final 14 games, including two touchdowns during the playoff run, a clear sign that Moore’s trust only grew as the games got bigger.
If that continues, Oregon may not have lost elite tight end production at all.
There were enormous expectations for Matayo Uiagalelei entering 2025. Fairly or unfairly, first-round conversations followed him everywhere.
While he may not have fully matched those outside expectations, the production still paints the picture of one of the premier defensive prospects in college football.
The senior edge defender finished another disruptive campaign with 52 total pressures, 9.5 tackles for loss, six sacks, two forced fumbles, and constant backfield disruption.
Uiagalelei wins with violent hands, natural leverage, and the kind of relentless motor that turns second-and-manageable into third-and-long. He generated multiple pressures in nearly every game last season, forcing quarterbacks to speed up reads before routes had time to develop fully.
Interior disruption does not always show up in the box score. Yet, A’Mauri Washington was one of the most disruptive in 2025.
Washington enters 2026 after making one of the biggest offseason bets in college football, turning down what could have been first-round NFL Draft interest to return for one more run at a championship.
For Oregon, that decision may be just as important as Moore’s.
Washington started all 15 games in 2025 while posting career highs in tackles, tackles for loss, pass breakups, pressures, and total snaps. His eight pass breakups were the most by any defensive lineman in the FBS, a statistic that perfectly captures just how disruptive his first step can be.
He is explosive. Violent. Difficult to reach.
And when paired with Uiagalelei and Teitum Tuioti, Oregon may have the most dangerous defensive front in the country.
National championships are often won up front. The Ducks know it. And so will everyone lining up against them this fall.
OWAIN JONES
COLLEGE FOOTBALL & NFL DRAFT ANALYST
OWAIN jones COVERS EVERYTHING college football & NFL DRAFT. COMING WITH PLENTY OF EXPERIENCE, OWAIN was PREVIOUSLY a writer for pfsn and WAS THE NFL DRAFT EDITOR AT NINETY-NINE YARDS WHERE HE CREATED DRAFT TALK. YOU CAN FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER @OwainJonesCFB