ONE MORE YEAR!!!

[Phenom]

Out of all the people to declare early.. I'd be most concerned about Tyler Johnstone and if Ifo & Mitchel declare together. I think our secondary will be fine if only one of them leaves early though.

I agree, Dior Matthis has looked really good this year but Toy Hill has looked unreliable at times.

Isn't Hill ahead of Dior on the depth chart? I've seen him on D more. That being said, I expect a dropoff at CB. I hope Seisay can step up. In fact, I could see us having to replace an entire secondary. I like Dargan at safety, though and I've heard lots of good things about Daniels.

When I first started posting here everyone was wondering about our secondary. They were depleted, lost a lot to graduation, who was going to step up...I think they did ok!

Wasn't that the year Lee and USC torched us?

[SuperDuck]

I see DAT leaving and Ifo, possibly TMitch, but he strikes me as a guy who wants to be a high draft pick and right now he's a 3-4 round guy. Grasu IMHO is a 5th rounder right now he's been up and down this year.

Marcus keeps to himself, but he seems like the type who enjoys being in school and will stay and get that degree. He's a guy who was patient enough to stay at a HS who wasn't starting him, when I'm sure he had people telling him to transfer and start anywhere else. I also think in 2015 he could be the #1 pick. No Clowney, no Teddy, no one except MM.

There's always someone.. There are several highly rated juniors that could decide to play their senior years.. and because of positional value he's not really competing against Clowney. The first 5 picks could easily be QBs in this years draft. I'm not sure what the money difference is, but I don't think being the #1 pick is as substantial as it was before the rookie cap.

Also.. I'm not so sure that MM couldn't surpass Teddy Bridgewater as the #1 QB taking.

This is something that I was thinking about a little while ago. Like Bridgewater, Marcus has consistently proven himself as an excellent QB, only Mariota has faced much better competition overall. Also, with much of the league moving to dual threat QB's he'd be a no brainer.

Here's the potential problem with him going #1 overall. He'd likely be picked by Jacksonville. The Jags do have some talent to build around, so I don't expect them to be horrible for too much longer. That's the positive side of the coin.

Here are two BIG negatives:

#1. The Jags were just purchased last year by Shahid "Shad" Khan, a Pakistani-born American billionaire businessman. (Yeah, I Googled it )

This guy plays hard ballball during player negotiations - big time! He was a flat out jerk during the Maurice Jones-Drew holdout. I don't expect Jones-Drew to be there after his contract runs out.

#2. There's also a strong chance that Jacksonville will be moving to England in the near future. I read an article a few months ago where Marcus said something about loving Oregon during football season, but that the winters were hard on him. That's easy to understand with him being from a warm weather climate. Yes, Hawaii does have a high average rainfall, but it's not cold, nasty and foggy. I've never been to London, but from what I understand the weather would be worse than Eugene by far. There wouldn't be many trips home during the season either.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... to-london/

He could pull an Eli Manning and John Elway by telling them not to draft him, but I doubt that would have any impact on the Jacksonville owner at all.

I hope he comes back but we'll have to wait and see.

[QuackininBama]

Oakland sucks balls as well. Not sure if they suck quite as bad as Jacksonville but Oakland is fairly temperate.

[Duck07]

Roger Goodell might like to put a franchise in London, but that team would probably be even worse than Jax is now. Its a cute sideshow right now and because Khan owns a soccer team in England it gets mentioned but no way you're going to make 8 teams cross the atlantic for these games. What about the playoffs when San Diego has to go to London for a game? Further, in 20 years time the NFL may not even exist as more and more High School aged football players are dying and showing signs of CTE before they've turned 18.

More than anything, I think this London talk is all about leverage from the League to the player's association. "Ok, we won't move a team to London but you've got to play 18 regular season games now."

[Duck07]

Also Super Duck re: weather, I've long argued that any recruit who says he doesn't want to come to Eugene because of the weather doesn't care about playing in the NFL. Take the Dolphins in the AFC East, who are their 3 conf opponents? NE, Buffalo and NYJ, all cold-weather teams. If you're afraid or don't like playing in the cold, the NFL Playoffs are not for you.

[SuperDuck]

Also Super Duck re: weather, I've long argued that any recruit who says he doesn't want to come to Eugene because of the weather doesn't care about playing in the NFL. Take the Dolphins in the AFC East, who are their 3 conf opponents? NE, Buffalo and NYJ, all cold-weather teams. If you're afraid or don't like playing in the cold, the NFL Playoffs are not for you.

Excellent points in both posts.

[NCDucks09]

I've heard from one of Mariota's former roommates last year that he plans to return for his rJr. year and obtain his degree.

[SuperDuck]

I've heard from one of Mariota's former roommates last year that he plans to return for his rJr. year and obtain his degree.

If that's the case, the Ducks could be ranked #1 going into the season, even if we lost DAT, Ifo and an OL. I get the feeling that Fisher will leave early. He's been really aggressive and verbal this year. He hasn't helped himself with bonehead penalties, but blocking that UW DL all the way across the field out of bounds was pretty comical. He was doing a "Michael Oher impersonation" in front of a bunch of NFL scouts.

[Phenom]

I've heard from one of Mariota's former roommates last year that he plans to return for his rJr. year and obtain his degree.

JHop and Moseley think he returns.

[buckmarkduck]

I've heard from one of Mariota's former roommates last year that he plans to return for his rJr. year and obtain his degree.

JHop and Moseley think he returns.

Yeah, he promised his mom he won't leave until he gets his degree.

[UOducksTK1]

I've heard from one of Mariota's former roommates last year that he plans to return for his rJr. year and obtain his degree.

JHop and Moseley think he returns.

Yeah, he promised his mom he won't leave until he gets his degree.

That'll be awesome. I wonder if we could get a couple of the other underclassmen to rally around Mariota and stay another year. For some, I'm sure it'll depend on how we finish this year. But would be exciting if a few guys like Mitchell and DAT decide to stay. I think IFO is the one player that'll be gone for sure.

[NCDucks09]

Of course, all of that aside, if Mariota wins the heisman and natty this year, he'd be foolish not to get drafted with a top 5 pick and get his money. Matt Leinhart anyone...?