Oregon's Bryan Addison settling in as 'special' player in Ducks' secondary

No moment better illustrates the progress Oregon junior Bryan Addison has made this season than the one he delivered early in the third quarter of the Ducks’ marquee win over UCLA last Saturday.

With the Bruins desperate to generate some offensive momentum after Oregon took a commanding lead in the second quarter, Dorian Thompson-Robinson swung a short pass to Zach Charbonnet on 3rd-and-8 and left it to the running back to pick up a much-needed first down.

At the moment Charbonnet caught the ball, there aren’t many who would have bet against him moving the chains. The 6-foot-1, 220-pound senior leads the Pac-12 in rushing and is among the nation’s leaders in yards after contact this season.

But Addison instinctively burst up from the safety spot like he was shot out of a cannon and chopped Charbonnet down for a massive third-down stop.

The ground Bryan Addison covers here is RIDICULOUS pic.twitter.com/xVbw2lbuk4

— Cam Mellor (@CamMellor) October 22, 2022

“Early in the season and in fall camp, we were on him,” Oregon defensive back Bennett Williams said. “Like, ‘Dude, you can be really special. There’s just certain stuff you’ve got to lock into and treat everything like you’re a professional.’

“I think he’s really embraced that recently. The play speaks for itself.”

Addison played possibly the best game of his college career on Saturday. In addition to his big stop against Charbonnet, he hauled in a fourth-quarter interception. He also broke up a deep pass to Jake Bobo in the first quarter on 3rd-and-18 that forced the Bruins to kick a field goal when the game was still in the balance.

A former 4-star recruit who came to Oregon as a highly-touted receiver in the class of 2018, the 6-foot-5, 195-pound junior is coming to his own in the Ducks’ secondary after making the position switch in 2020.

For a defense that has struggled to tackle in space and consistently stop opponents on third down at times this season, Addison’s contributions have been immense.

“He’s got range. We talked about this morning as we went back and evaluate some of the things, this guy can cover sideline to sideline,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said of Addison earlier this week. “Obviously having that receiving background allowed him to come down with a ball there at the end of the game. But he’s getting his hands on a lot of balls and gets guys down when it comes to tackling. And that’s showing up.”

According to Pro Football Focus, Addison has an overall defensive grade of 82.0 this season. The next-best for an Oregon player who sees the field regularly is Brandon Dorlus at 72.5. Addison has the fifth-highest grade among all Pac-12 defensive players who have met the snap minimum.

According to PFF, he’s also missed just two tackles this season. At 9.1%, he is tied with Jamal Hill for the best missed-tackle percentage on the team among Ducks who play regularly.

“I would say coach Lanning kind of instilled that in me,” Addison said. “Like, ‘You’ve got to be physically back there on the back end. Being physical is one thing that he preached to me, and I just took it and ran with it every day.”

In an Oregon secondary that features plenty of versatile players, Addison’s unique blend of size, range, and instincts stands out and allows Lanning and defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi to deploy him in advantageous scenarios.

“Whatever coach Lanning needs me to do at any point in the game,” Addison said. “I’m just here for the team, in a sense. I’m here to win games. I’m not really worried about my personal records or anything that’s coming up.

“Just really worried about taking it to the next level and competing every week.”