Oregon DC goes in-depth on Ducks’ nickel position competition

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Sometimes in college football, the transfer portal can deliver in ways that fans never expected. For the Oregon Ducks, this showed up a year ago when former Ole Miss defensive back Jadon Canady came to Eugene and became one of the best nickel cornerbacks in the nation, boosting his stock to the point where he is likely to hear his name called in the middle rounds of this week's coming NFL draft.

Now, though, there are big shoes to fill at that position. The Ducks enter the 2026 season with a bevy of options to fill out the starting spots in the secondary, but the competition for that starting spot is starting to heat up. According to defensive coordinator Chris Hampton, there's a long list of players who have been standing out in the nickel.

“You know, we've got a bunch of guys working there. We really do, man, we rotate a lot of different players," Hampton said on Monday. "Carl (Williams) is definitely doing it. Davon Benjamin's doing it. Zach Grisham is doing it. Brandon Finney is doing it. Peyton Woodyard is doing it. So there are a bunch of guys who work. Na’eem Offord, he's working there. Azel Banag, a new freshman, he’s doing it. So we've got a lot of guys playing."

For Oregon, it's a good problem to have, possessing so many talented players who could stand out at that position. The difficulty comes in narrowing things down and figuring out who is going to be able to step up in the biggest moments, holding up a valuable piece of the secondary.

"It's a staple of our defense," Hampton said. "Jadon was a really good nickel for us last season. So we've got big shoes to fill with him, but we've got a lot of guys, and I think they've grown tremendously from practice one until now.”

Saturday's Spring Game inside Autzen Stadium will give a great look at who is able to stand apart from the rest of the group in a competitive atmosphere, but as with any position competition at Oregon, things will carry on through the summer and likely be decided in August.

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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Oregon Ducks' nickel competition heating up ahead of spring game

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