Oregon Report Card: QB

In the Oregon offense, like most all offenses, the quarterback is the single-most important position. The reasons are obvious. For the Ducks the difference between playoff-caliber football and .500 ball in 2015 was at the hands and feet of the QB.

In the first of Duck Sports Authority’s pre-spring report card series we bring you the state of the all-important position: Quarterback.

It was painfully obvious from the second game of the season on how valuable Vernon Adams was to the Oregon offense. His injury in the season-opener lingered for several games as the Ducks lost to MSU, Utah and Washington State afterwards. The team under Jeff Lockie and Taylor Alie was good enough with its other weapons to beat Georgia State and Colorado. The second half of the Alamo Bowl was similar to the Utah game without Adams.

Overall Adams did some very good things for the Ducks. Had he been able to practice more with the team before the season and then stayed healthy, it is hard to think the Ducks would not be a playoff team. The things he did best were throwing the long ball and extending plays. His accuracy was not great but it was good on other routes.

Jeff Lockie and Taylor Alie were barely serviceable Pac-12 quarterbacks but in their defense, they never had a chance to be “the man” with Adams getting all of the coaches’ attention and the majority of the reps with the ones in Fall.

More than most positions it will take time to truly grade this group. Defined by recruiting class rankings the Ducks signed just two, local standout Justin Herbert and Oklahoma dual-threat Terry Wilson. But the biggest addition in terms of immediate impact was the graduate transfer of Dakota Prukop. With Prukop we will know right away how effective he will be.

Prukop started for Montana State his junior and senior campaigns, leading them to an 8-5 and 5-6 record respectively. He completed 63.9 percent of his passes averaging 9.3 yards per completion. He also averaged 79.3 yards rushing per game, making him a running threat as desired for a spread offense. His 46-16 TD to INT ratio was good but not great. In any case, like Vernon Adams, Prukop is a ready-to-play at the Pac-12 level guy more than likely.

It will be several years until we know for sure if Wilson and Herbert were good signings. On the surface they are both three-stars though Wilson was more heavily recruited than Herbert. Both can be considered running threats so should be able to run the Matt Lubick offense however it develops. But on film both players show great potential with both their arms and feet.

Hopefully what the Duck have done here is fill a dire, immediate need for next year and also seeded some athletic talent into the unit for after their redshirt seasons.

As a side note, good thing Seth Green decided to go to Minnesota. Four QB’s would have been too many to sign.

Newcomer prospects for 2015: Our best guess at this time is that Prukop will start and both Herbert and Wilson will redshirt.

What we saw in 2015 was that Jeff Lockie and Taylor Alie are guys who can run the team in some situations but will not be the quarterback the Ducks need to return to the top of the heap. Yes, players can and do develop and get better. But the gap between Adams and anybody else last year was very large and it was obvious.

What remains to be seen is how Prukop stacks up to Adams. Will he show up and immediately make it is obvious he should be the starter? It was with Vernon.

The wildcard is the development of Travis Jonsen. We assume Lockie and Alie will be a bit better than last year, but we haven’t seen Jonsen play since high school.

Overall the outlook at QB going into Spring Camp? Hopeful but uncertain.