Oregon's outside linebackers are loaded with promising young talent heading into the 2024 season.
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00:00 Rolling along, let's talk about the outside linebackers and edge defenders.
00:07 Again is this is a group that sometimes you could you could say D and I mean, we didn't
00:11 talk a whole lot about Jordan Burch in the last the last position, but he is someone
00:16 that is ready to go.
00:18 He's many by many people thought of as the best defensive player that Oregon has coming
00:24 back from last year's roster and for these guys, the outside linebackers and the edge
00:30 players organs in a really good spot because they have some really solid young depth Matteo
00:36 young Lele Blake purchase Tatum to Yodi all three of those guys hit more or less early
00:42 in their right like right away basically in their college careers and I think that Tatum
00:47 to Yodi was really the surprise from that bunch because I think he was probably playing
00:51 the most if not the earliest at least from that group so because you have those guys
00:56 playing at a high level and it played a lot of quality snaps it gives you some flexibility
01:00 to work in some of these other guys some younger players possibly but another guy that we have
01:05 to mention here I think is is a Marion Winston.
01:11 He's a guy that probably doesn't get talked about a whole lot even though he's played
01:14 some pretty good football since he's been at Oregon and you know some of the people
01:18 I've talked to around the program are pretty excited about him and think that he's a quality
01:22 player he's still fairly young but it feels like he's got some really solid experience
01:27 and then you have some of these younger guys like Ashton Porter that the duck sign in 23
01:32 Jade more as well we just haven't seen a whole lot from them so that's one of the things
01:37 I'm most excited about here in the spring is just writing about some guys that I haven't
01:41 really written about since they were recruits and this is the perfect time to do it.
01:47 Absolutely I mean that's the benefit you get just really just grinding that recruiting
01:52 trail right there now you get to see these guys you mentioned Matteo I mean being a first
01:58 year player last year and getting amount reps that he did you saw the immediate impact that
02:02 he was able to produce and my favorite moment from him was when Oregon played Oregon State
02:08 and he's able to sack his brother get that half sack on his brother that just really
02:13 that was a cool family moment right there but yeah like just seeing some of the younger
02:18 guys get more reps and get actually some more playing time because I mean they showed it
02:23 last year if you bring in the right guys they can make an immediate impact.
02:29 And it's going to be interesting to see just how much of an impact someone like an Elijah
02:33 Rushing or a Jackson Jones makes as well I was showing some love to Arizona earlier and
02:39 Jackson Jones comes out of Arizona Yuma Catholic as one of maybe the more underrated guys in
02:45 Oregon's 2024 recruiting class a one-time Washington commit so I know Oregon fans always
02:51 love those those wins over U-Dub no matter if it's on the recruiting trail or on the
02:56 football field so there's a lot of exciting young talent to to kind of work with in this
03:01 room if you're Tosh LaPoi and the rest of that defensive staff and I think the bar's
03:06 been set pretty high for Oregon's pass rush and I think you could maybe expect it at least
03:14 on paper to take somewhat of a step back from last year I'm not saying that I think that
03:19 that's ultimately going to be what happens we really can't say too much until the spring
03:24 game and and even then it's going to be hard to say is I think we're going to have to wait
03:28 until they open up the season and they're going against another team to see where that
03:31 group is really at because we're not going to see the best guys playing on the same team
03:35 in the spring game necessarily but the face of Oregon's pass rush I think really starts
03:40 with Jordan Burch obviously and I think you also have to look at some of the DB's that
03:44 we'll talk about a little bit later because we know that this defensive staff like to
03:47 kind of drop some of those plays with those surprise blitzes with Evan Williams and Ty
03:51 Sheem Johnson from a season ago but you got a nice little return nice little blend I should
03:57 say of returners and some some new talent that you're adding into the mix here because
04:03 the ducks didn't go super heavy at edge it was just Elijah rushing and Jackson Jones
04:07 so just from a number standpoint not a lot of guys that they added to the mix here which
04:13 could be good which means that they're confident and some of those guys that they signed from
04:17 2023.