Oregon’s defensive line is headed for a major turnover after the 2026 season, and Dan Lanning thinks one young player is already making his case to be part of the next wave.
The Ducks still have plenty of experienced bodies up front right now, with returning seniors A'Mauri Washington and Bear Alexander joined by North Carolina junior transfer D'Antre Robinson, Howard senior transfer Derrick Brown Jr., and ULM senior transfer Jerome Simmons. But that group is nearing the back end of its college run, which is why the development of the underclassmen behind them matters so much.
One of those players, incoming sophomore Matthew Johnson, has caught Lanning’s attention during fall camp. The former four-star prospect from Concord, California, entered Oregon in 2025 and has clearly spent the offseason trying to turn himself into a bigger part of the rotation.
"We talk on our team about being obsessed, and Matt's a guy that's been obsessed with getting better," Lanning said. "He's worked himself into a role where he's going to play a lot of significant snaps for us because of what he's done, the work that he's put in, the strength that he's gained, the weight that he's put on and his intentionality with the way he does the drill work."
Lanning also pointed to strength and conditioning coach Wilson Love for helping set the tone during the offseason, and Johnson appears to be one of the players benefiting from that emphasis on physical development.
That matters in a room where the veterans are already carrying serious size. ESPN lists Alexander at 6-3, 302 pounds, and Washington posted an 855-pound squat on his Instagram story just two weeks ago. For Johnson, adding strength is part of the job if he wants to hold his own in that group.
As a true freshman in 2025, Johnson played in seven games, and all seven came during Oregon’s College Football Playoff run. He recorded four total tackles on the season, with three of them coming in the first three games, and he did it across 56 snaps.
The early schedule gave him chances against Montana State, Oklahoma State, James Madison and Texas Tech, and he also lined up against Indiana in the playoff quarterfinal Peach Bowl. Lanning said the experience has already started to show up in practice.
"He's disruptive. He's hard to block.
He's powerful. He's a guy that's given everything that he needed to put himself in position to play.
If he continues to push, he can be a really dynamic player for this defense," Lanning said.
Lanning also made clear what Oregon needs from its young linemen going forward. The standard starts with surviving the run game, especially when offensive lines are leaning on them with size and double teams.
"Well, in the run game, you've got to be able to anchor and you've got to be able to handle 320-pound offensive linemen pushing on you. Sometimes that's a double team," Lanning added.
"A guy that can stay in that gap and control it, and then be able to split that gap and make a play, is a guy that can make an impact for us. Matt's proven he can do that."
For now, Johnson’s rise is one of the more encouraging signs inside Oregon’s defensive line room, and Lanning’s comments suggest the Ducks already see him as more than just a depth piece.
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