Oregon EDGE Anthony Jones enters transfer portal

One of Oregon’s reserve edge defenders appears headed for a departure from the program.

On Tuesday, On3’s Matt Zenitz reported that Oregon redshirt freshman EDGE Anthony Jones will enter the transfer portal.

Oregon redshirt freshman outside linebacker Anthony Jones is expected to enter the transfer portal, sources tell @on3sports.

Jones, a Class of 2022 recruit, was committed to Texas before flipping to Oregon.https://t.co/sd36yOiVkl

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) April 26, 2023

A former 3-star signee in the class of 2022, Jones played eight snaps over the course of two games last season and took a redshirt.

According to the On3 Industry Ranking, Jones was the No. 576 overall prospect in his class and the No. 21 athlete.

His departure comes at a position that was already thin on proven depth. The Ducks lost their two primary Jack linebackers during the offseason — DJ Johnson and Bradyn Swinson — as well as a handful of other edge defenders.

They added former South Carolina standout Jordan Burch during the offseason, and he is expected to start in 2023.

There had been plenty of positive buzz surrounding Jones this spring, and he was expected to be in the mix for playing time next fall.

Jones becomes the fifth Duck this spring to hit the portal, along with linebacker Keith Brown, defensive lineman Treven Ma’ae, cornerback Jalil Tucker, and safety Trejon Williams.

With Jones’ departure, Oregon’s scholarship count sits at 86 — one above the NCAA limit.

Transfer portal background information

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.