CBS Sports’ latest list of the top NFL players age 25 and under includes two familiar Oregon names, with Penei Sewell and Christian Gonzalez both earning spots among the league’s best young talent.
Sewell landed at No. 3 on the ranking, and his place on the list comes with a ticking clock: he’ll age out in early October when he turns 26. The Detroit Lions tackle has already built a decorated NFL résumé across five seasons in Detroit, piling up three First-team All-Pro honors and four Pro Bowl selections while becoming one of the premier offensive tackles in football.
Before he reached that level in the pros, Sewell made his mark in Eugene from 2018-2020. He left Oregon as a Unanimous All-American and First-team All-Pac-12 selection, then went No. 7 overall to the Lions in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Gonzalez checked in at No. 13 after a strong start to his career with the New England Patriots. The 24-year-old cornerback just finished his third NFL season and has already logged 145 total tackles, 24 passes defended, three interceptions, one fumble recovery, one fumble returned for a touchdown, three tackles for loss and one sack in 34 regular season games.
His 2025 playoff run stood out, too. Gonzalez was a major part of New England’s defense during its march to the Super Bowl, leading the NFL in passes defended in the playoffs with seven. He was also named Second-team All-Pro in 2024 and made the Pro Bowl in 2025.
Oregon got just one season out of Gonzalez, but it was a productive one. After transferring from Colorado, he played for the Ducks in 2022 and posted 50 total tackles, seven passes defended and four interceptions. That performance earned him First-team All-Pac-12 honors before he entered the 2023 NFL Draft and went No. 17 overall to the Patriots.
The Ducks’ presence in the NFL pipeline has been growing fast. Since 2024, Oregon has had 25 players selected in NFL Drafts, including a program-record 10 in the 2025 draft alone.
And the next wave could be even bigger. NFL Mock Draft Database projects 11 Ducks to be picked in the 2027 NFL Draft, which would set a new program record if it holds. The projected group includes Dante Moore, A'Mauri Washington, Jamari Johnson, Matayo Uiagalelei, Koi Perich, Iapani Laloulu, Teitum Tuioti, Bear Alexander, Aaron Scott Jr. and Evan Stewart.
With that kind of talent on the roster, Oregon is expected to keep itself in the College Football Playoff conversation for a third straight season. The Ducks reached the quarterfinal in 2024 and the semifinal in 2025, and 2026 now becomes the next step in that climb.
In Other News...
Oregon Great DeForest Buckner Just Entered A Concerning New Conversation
ESPNs latest league-wide positional rankings offered a familiar reminder of how much former Oregon Ducks talent still shapes the NFL, with Justin Herbert, Penei Sewell and Christian Gonzalez all landing on the list. For Ducks fans, DeForest Buckner has long been part of that same conversation as one of the programs most reliable pro success stories, a defensive tackle whose resume has usually kept him near the top of the leagues interior line discussion.
This time, though, Buckners name was missing from ESPNs top 10, a notable shift after he was still ranked eighth among defensive tackles in 2025. The omission points to how quickly the discussion can change for a veteran whose recent availability has been limited, and it leaves Oregon followers watching a situation that feels more about health and timing than any real doubt about what Buckner has meant when hes been on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Former Duck Terrance Green Is Suddenly Turning Heads In The SEC
Terrance Green never got much runway at Oregon, where he spent three seasons buried behind a deep line of defensive tackles and had to wait for snaps behind a group that included several NFL-caliber bodies. That kind of logjam can make it hard for any player to build a profile, but it also means Green arrives at Alabama with a different kind of rsum than most transfers: less production, more untapped potential, and a chance to show what he can do when the path is finally clearer.
Now the former Duck is drawing real attention in the SEC, and the early buzz around him has been strong enough to land him on The Athletics preseason second team. With two seasons of eligibility left, Green has a real opportunity to turn a modest Oregon resume into something much bigger in Tuscaloosa, and the next step is whether that promise translates once the games start and the Crimson Tide decide how quickly they want to lean on him. [Read more 🡒]
Oregons Loaded 2027 Class Already Has Early Impact Candidates
Oregons 2027 recruiting haul is already starting to look like more than a future depth chart exercise. The Ducks have 24 commits in the class, and the headliners include five-star wide receivers Dakota Guerrant and Xavier Sabb along with five-star quarterback Will Mencl, a group that gives the staff a rare blend of top-end talent and positional value before any of them have set foot in Eugene.
The intrigue now is how quickly that talent can translate once they arrive. Early projections point to Guerrant, Mencl and Sabb as the kinds of prospects who could force their way onto the field sooner than expected, with Mencls path at quarterback drawing especially close attention as Oregon looks ahead to the next wave of roster turnover. For a program that keeps stacking elite classes, the bigger question is no longer whether the Ducks can sign difference-makers, but how soon they can start using them. [Read more 🡒]