Oregon Football WR Preview: Welcome, Devon Williams
The current status of College Football be damned, I’m writing previews at every single position for the 2020-21 Oregon Ducks. Let’s talk wide recievers.
In previewing the Oregon quarterbacks and running backs, I’ve been slowly reminded of how large college football rosters are. And then I looked at the wide receivers, and I absolutely lost my mind. Not only are there typically more wide receivers on the field of play than any other single specific offensive position, but the bottom of the depth chart are often utilized as valuable bodies on special teams.
2020 also might be the most loaded the Ducks have been with wide receiver talent in the last five years.
So, for the sake of organization—and my own brain—I took the easy way out and broke the guys up into tiers in order to better understand the landscape of pass catchers (not including tight ends because the big boys get their own special preview) that Tyler Shough is going to be connecting with.
Tier 1
Johnny Johnson III
JJ3 is the best wide receiver on this team. He was the best last year, too.
The massive jump that Johnny Yams made between his sophomore and junior seasons—especially in terms of pure pass-catching—is up there with any other college football player in history.
Whenever JJ3 caught a tough ball in 2019—as my cousin Andy constantly points out—you can’t help but remind yourself that, “Johnny Johnson wouldn’t catch that ball last year.” And I would not be surprised if he made a similar leap in skill over the course of this offseason—all signs pointing to a likely first team all-conference selection.
As a senior, he’s one of the most experienced receivers on the roster, and probably among the top two candidates—alongside Shough—for offensive team captain.
Mycah Pittman
Even though he’s young, and missed time on an injured shoulder last year, Mycah has the most upside of anyone on this roster. As long as he can stay healthy, his sophomore season should be full of highlight-reel catches and growth into one of the most electric receivers in the Pac-12.
He had his best moments in 2019 while running out of screen passes and showing patience beyond his year while following his blockers and racking up YAC.
Jaylon Redd
Redd ended the season by mysteriously missing the Rose Bowl, but all signs point to the fact that whatever kept him out has now been resolved. Expect to return and be just as much of a weapon as he ever has been for Joe Moorhead & Co.
He’s been the most consistent and reliable receiver on this team for the last two years, as well as an under-the-radar touchdown machine. We should all be perfectly fine if opposing teams would prefer to pay attention to JJ3 and Mycah while Redd simply continues to scorch the rest of the Pac.
Devon Williams
If the red zone corner fade pass was ever actually a good play, Devon Williams would be our guy.
At 6’5”, 209 lbs, the transfer from USC—and infamous Never-Beaver—is going to step right into Juwan Johnson’s role as the most eye-catching target on the field at any given time. We haven’t seen him in action yet, but all practice reports have noted that the Trojan-defector is going to be a force to be reckoned with as the outside, X receiver.
I can’t say enough about how excited that everyone should be about Devon.
Pittman and JJ3 are both similar in terms of the way that a secondary might plan to defend against them, but when you throw in a Tall Fir like Williams, it’s the kind of curveball that will always demand extra attention from a safety or two.
Tier 2
Bryan Addison
Addison is only on this second tier because we haven’t seen him utilized as a primary target. Realistically Bryan is right there with Devon Williams in terms of starting at X receiver, and he’s at the top of this tier because he’s proved to be quite possibly the best blocking receiver on the whole roster. Shades of Lavasier Tuinei in size and ceiling.
Daewood Davis
Daewood has been a special teams AND defensive stud whenever called upon to do either. The plan looks to be reestablishing him as a wide receiver again in 2020, and that’s exciting since he is not-so-secretly one of the fastest athletes in Eugene. I’m excited to see him basically become the Jamere Holland of 2020, and even more so in 2021.
Josh Delgado
Delgado showed some Eric Decker-esque flashes of brilliance while catching passes from Shough in the 2019 Spring Game, and even in a couple moments early last year when the Ducks were super thin at receiver. I’m looking to 2020 as a year where Delgado gets stronger and stronger to hopefully grow his role in the coming seasons.
Tier Etc.
We’re going to go lightning round with this group. Not because they’re unimportant, but because I’m not going to pretend like there’s more than one sentence to say right now about each of them.
Sophomore Isaah Crocker finished his second year within the program strong, and all internal messaging from GoDucks.com indicates that he is knocking on the doorstep of Addison and Williams as the three-deep option at the X.
Redshirt freshmen JR Waters and Lance Wilhoite both faced minor injuries at the start of last year, but battled back to become vital members of the scout team.
Four-star true freshman Kris Hutson is definitely an exciting addition to the corps, but will most likely redshirt in such a packed class.
Senior Justin Collins is the most college-experienced of the “rest” of the receiving group. Hailing from Long Beach City College, to Boise State, now to Eugene, Collins saw in-game action in 2018 in a win over ASU. He could be called upon if we see some unfortunate injuries (as Oregon is well-known for, especially at receiver). That’s about all I know/can say about him.
Tier “Misc. Guys from Oregon High Schools”
I’m gonna group these last couple guys together, because I want to.
Tevin Jeannis, Vincenzo Logan, Jack Vecchi, and Korbin Williams all went to high school in Oregon, and are getting to live out their lifelong dreams (read: my lifelong dream) of getting to play for the Ducks. Jeannis got some good run at special teams in the Civil War, and Vecchi caught a fiery touchdown pass from the late-great Braxton Burmeister in the 2018 Spring Game, but other than that these boys are a bit of a mystery in terms of real-game experience in Eugene. You can rest-assured that if and when their numbers get called this year, the hometown crowd will get just an extra louder for ‘em.
As they should.
Go Ducks.