Oregon football notebook: Ducks emerge from bye week mostly healthy
It would appear that the bye week has treated the Oregon Ducks well on the health front.
Oregon was on the outdoor practice fields under sunny Eugene skies Tuesday morning. Per usual, the first 20 minutes of practice were open to reporters and photographers.
During that time, and while players were walking into practice, we did not observe any new injuries or absences.
The two biggest question marks coming into this week in terms of injuries were junior safety Bryan Addison and sophomore running back Byron Cardwell. Both players were active participants during Tuesday’s practice and went through position drills.
On Monday, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning said Addison will be “ready to roll” for Saturday’s top-10 showdown with UCLA after missing the Ducks’ Week 6 win over Arizona. Cardwell’s status, however, is less certain.
“Byron is a guy that has worked extremely hard,” Lanning said on Monday. “It’s about him feeling comfortable with himself to step back out there on the field. We support him in every way from a medical standpoint, our coaching staff. He’s a great kid. He does everything the right way.
“Once he feels like he can go out there and compete for us, we welcome him out there to be able to see him on the field for us.”
The only new absence that we observed was that of walk-on offensive lineman Kanen Rossi.
Defensive lineman Popo Aumavae, Sua’ava Poti, and Maceal Afaese, and offensive lineman Steven Jones are all dealing with long-term injuries and remained absent.
Practice observations
Oregon went through the usual warmups and special teams drills to begin practice.
As has been the case for a few weeks, Lanning ended the first period of the day with a “pressure kicks” scenario.
This time around, the punters lined up on the goal line while their teammates gathered around and made as much noise as possible in order to distract them. Adam Barry, Ross James, and Andrew Boyle all took “pressure” reps, in that order.
All three players delivered strong punts. Boyle’s addition to the punter group is an intriguing one; he’s worked as a placekicker all season and was seen working with the punters occasionally early in the season. But with the Ducks’ recent up-and-down at the punter position, it will be worth monitoring if Boyle gets any game reps there.
During the second period, Oregon moved into the usual position drills. For skill-position players and defensive backs, that included a mod-bracket drill. Troy Franklin and Seven McGee both had nice reps during that portion while working in tandem with a tight end to beat three defenders.
The offensive linemen worked on combo-blocking drills against the defensive linemen.
NFL scouts in the building
Scouts from the Chicago Bears, Pittsburgh Steelers, Oakland Raiders, Detroit Lions, Arizona Cardinals, and Philadelphia Eagles were all in attendance to watch Tuesday’s practice.
