By Gavin K Carpenter

The Ducks showed up and showed out in front of scouts from 30 of 32 NFL teams at the 2024 Oregon Ducks Pro Day in Eugene. Graduating seniors and player who had declared for the draft had the opportunity to run both measurable drills such as the vertical jump, bench press, and 40 yard dash, as well as skill position drills for each player.

Bo Nix performed well at Pro Day, with the Heisman finalist only throwing two out-of-range passes on more than 40 passing attempts throughout his passing drills; scouts also got to see Nix’s strong deep ball accuracy, something that was not tested as much during the combine. Bucky Irving participated in the vertical jump again, and was able to raise his performance by two inches from the combine. 

The Pro Day also allowed for players who were not invited to the combine  to show off in front of NFL scouts. Casey Rogers had a vertical jump of 35 inches and a broad jump of 9 feet 8 inches; if he had been invited to the combine, the former would have been the best for defensive tackles, the latter tied for second best. Jamal Hill ran the fastest 40 time of any Oregon Player at Pro Day with a 4.41; this also would have been good enough for the fastest time of any linebacker at the combine. Kicker Camden Lewis went 10/10 on his field goal attempts, including nailing one from sixty yards.

There was a real sense of family in the building as these players worked out with their teammates for the last time as Ducks. When asked about the camaraderie, defensive end Brandon Dorlus said “We built a brotherhood that I would never forget. These guys gonna be at my wedding”, adding “We just broke it up in our little huddle […] just talking about ‘hey, at the end of the day we always gonna be here for each other’“. Cornerback Steve Stephens IV said “A scout once asked me ‘who would you bring’ and I said I would bring everyone if I could […] we just got genuine love for each other”.