The Oregon Ducks are projected to be among the best teams in the nation at the start of the 2024 season, largely thanks to the litany of starters returning from last year, and the influx of top-rated talent coming from the transfer portal.
While they are almost unanimously being ranked as a top-10 team going into the offseason, where they rank in the top 10 is up for debate. Last week, we saw that ESPN had the Ducks ranked as the No. 3 team in the nation in their way-too-early top 25. Now we see that Pro Football Focus has Oregon ranked a little bit lower, down at No. 7.
Even with quarterback Bo Nix moving on to the NFL, Oregon should be one of the top Big Ten contenders next season. That’s because the Ducks added the top quarterback in the transfer portal, Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel. His 91.6 PFF grade this year is the highest among returning FBS quarterbacks and only trailed Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr. Oregon also added another top signal-caller in the portal in UCLA’s Dante Moore. The former five-star recruit’s 6.4% big-time throw rate as a true freshman stood third among Pac-12 quarterbacks this season.
While the Ducks are at No. 7, PFF had Michigan ranked at No. 5 despite the national champions losing their starting quarterback and many other starters from the 2023 team, with the future of their head coach Jim Harbaugh in question as well. Ohio State is also ranked ahead of Oregon at No. 6. The Buckeyes will be breaking in transfer quarterback Will Rogers, but they do have a lot of starters from last season returning and should be a force in the Big Ten.
Story originally appeared on Ducks Wire
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/ducks-ranked-third-best-big-142248001.html
Author : Ducks Wire
Publish date : 2024-01-16 14:22:48
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