Wednesday the Ducks extended an offer to 2023 prospect Nico Iamaleava, a 6-6 dart thrower with the magnetism and pocket presence to develop into college football's next great Samoan quarterback.

In an abbreviated spring season the sophomore from Warren High in Downey, California led his team to a 4-0 record, passing for 269 yards a game with 14 touchdowns and just one interception.

Iamaleava is a 3.5-G.P.A.-student who is serious about his development and future in the game, competing in club football, 7-on-7 and on his high school team. He's also an elite volleyball player.

In January he won the sophomore MVP award at NextGen Los Angeles Showcase.

But it's this eye-opening anecdote from Los Angeles Times writer Luca Evans that truly captures why he might have something special, a warrior mentality and extreme focus:

The Downey Warren High quarterback was jogging off the field after a goal-line drill at the end of a Thursday practice — the day before his team’s first game of the season March 19 against Compton Dominguez — having just stiff-armed a teammate on defense who’d tried to prevent him from getting into the end zone. Warren coach Kevin Pearson saw something was wrong with the sophomore’s left, non-throwing index finger.

“We go over to the trainer, and the trainer meets me and goes, ‘Coach, that’s his bone right there,’” Pearson said. “I go, ‘What?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, that’s a compound fracture.’”

He was supposed to be out for four to six weeks, doctors initially said. Instead, Iamaleava sought consultation after consultation until he was cleared to play in the middle of a Wednesday practice the following week. He laced up his cleats, taped up his fingers and participated in the last half of that day’s drills and the next day’s walk-through.

Then he suited up March 26 and threw for 361 yards and six touchdowns in a 40-20 win over Lakewood Mayfair.

That's toughness, perhaps on a level that the Ducks didn't get from the position last season.

In just two weeks the NFL will conduct its annual draft, this year from Cleveland, Ohio.

For the second year in a row the Ducks will have a player taken in the first round.

Justin Herbert went sixth overall in 2020 and went on to be the league's Rookie of the Year, throwing for 4,336 yards, 31 touchdowns and 396 completions, the last two being all-time best marks for a first-year passer.

This season Outland Trophy-winning tackle Penei Sewell is likely to be called onto the stage early, perhaps as the #5 overall selection by Cincinnati, though an early run on quarterbacks and receivers may skew the draft order.

A number five pick would typically get a first contract valued at $29.1 million, $19.98 in signing bonus, $5.3 million first-year salary.

Oregon's all-time record for draft selections in one season is six, set three times in school history, 1972, 2002, and 2009. The team saw four picked in 2019 and 2020, five from the national championship runner up squad in 2015.

Last season there were 13 Ducks on NFL active 53-man rosters at the beginning of the season. Alabama led all of college football with 56. Ohio State was next with 50.

Oregon's share of pro jobs is likely to climb in 2021 with Sewell ticketed for the first round and Jevon Holland projected to go early in the second. Thomas Graham, Deommodore Lenoir and Brady Breeze should be day three selections, while Hunter Kampmoyer, Jordon Scott, Nick Pickett, and Austin Faoliu should get free agent tryouts.

Lenoir turned in a scorching 4.44 40 at Oregon Pro Day, while Thomas Graham was just an eyelash behind him at 4.45--these were two of the fastest times in the PAC-12.

Draft success is crucial for the status of the program. Along with location, coach relationship and chance to win, it's one of the critical factors recruits use in their commitment decisions.

The Ducks' recruiting mojo could get a spectacular boost in 2021. This week at spring practice fourth-year juniors C.J. Verdell and Travis Dye both said they're aiming for a national championship. Verdell wants to run for 2,000 yards.

Even if they fall short of those goals, aiming high raises perception, standards and expectations.

On defense, Kayvon Thibodeaux has said he wants to be a contender for the Heisman Trophy. This time next year, he may become Oregon's third straight early--first-round selection, a selling point of inestimable value on the recruiting trail.

Already Thibodeaux is the third Duck in the last four seasons to win the Morris Trophy as the PAC-12's lineman of the year.

The commitment to the trenches is a dramatic and palpable change from the Oregon image of 10 or twenty years ago. It's made a vital difference in recruiting. Mario Cristobal has the school in contention for dozens of top prospects on both lines, including Dayne Shor, Tyler Booker, Kelvin Banks, RJ Cooper and Deone Walker, just to name a few who've updated their top schools lists in the last week.