Wednesday War Room: Portal Reset begins

 

Oregon’s Portal Reset: How the Ducks have started to reset the roster this week

What happened in Eugene over the last few days wasn’t simply a run of good news on the transfer wire. It was something far more deliberate. Oregon didn’t just go shopping for talent. It went hunting for structure.

Quarterback. Safety. Nickel. Offensive tackle. Wide receiver.

Those are the positions that keep a roster upright when the calendar turns to December and the playoff field shrinks to the teams that can still protect a quarterback, defend space, and make plays when everyone knows what’s coming. Oregon attacked all five in one week, and in doing so, quietly reshaped what its 2026 team is going to look like.

It starts, inevitably, with the quarterback.

Dylan Raiola

Dante Moore is set to announce whether he’s returning to Oregon or entering the NFL Draft, and on the surface that decision feels like it should define everything else. But the reality is that Dylan Raiola’s arrival was never dependent on Moore leaving. Dan Lanning does not operate in a vacuum. He talks to everyone. He plans for every branch of the decision tree. Raiola doesn’t come to Eugene unless Moore knows he’s coming and, if Moore is staying, unless everyone is aligned with what that means.

That’s what makes Raiola such a fascinating addition. He is not a threat to Moore. He’s not a consolation prize if Moore leaves. He’s a bridge between eras.

Oregon learned something uncomfortable in 2025: it had no experienced quarterback behind its starter. Dante Moore was brilliant, but if anything had happened to him, the offense would have been running on hope and reps. Elite programs don’t leave themselves exposed like that. They stack experience, then let competition and development decide the rest.

Raiola brings that experience. Twenty-two starts. A sophomore season where he completed more than 72 percent of his passes, threw 18 touchdowns against six interceptions, and showed real growth from his true freshman year. He’s already been through the wars of Power Five football, which matters far more than hype when you’re trying to win playoff games.

The broken fibula he suffered late in the season clouds his spring, but it doesn’t cloud the plan. If Moore leaves, Raiola steps in as a proven starter. If Moore stays, Raiola gets the same redshirt runway Moore once had behind Dillon Gabriel, heals fully, learns the offense, and enters 2027 with two years of eligibility and an Oregon-built foundation.

This isn’t coincidence. It’s a pipeline. Gabriel to Moore to Raiola. That’s how modern contenders manage the most important position in the sport.

Koi Perich

If Raiola is about protecting the offense, Koi Perich is about keeping the defense from sliding backward.

Oregon’s secondary was one of the defining strengths of the 2025 team, and Dillon Thieneman was at the center of it. But there is no understudy on the roster with his combination of experience and production. That made Perich less of a luxury and more of a necessity.

The Ducks have already proven they know how to find elite safeties in the portal. Thieneman did it last year. Now Perich follows the same path, arriving as the No. 1 safety in the transfer class with two years of eligibility and a body of work that already looks like an NFL résumé in progress.

He fits exactly what Oregon wants on the back end: someone who can play deep, trigger downhill, rotate into hybrid looks, and stabilize everyone around him. More than anything, he buys time. Trey McNutt, Jett Washington and the rest of Oregon’s young safety talent can grow without being forced onto the field before they’re ready. Perich becomes the present, and the bridge to whatever comes next.

That’s how good defenses stay good instead of starting over.

Carl Williams IV

The nickel position is where modern defenses live or die, and Oregon suddenly didn’t have one.

Jadon Canady and Daylen Austin were gone. Lanning didn’t wait to see how that might work itself out. He went and got Carl Williams IV, and he did it with the kind of decisiveness that tells you exactly how important that spot is in Oregon’s scheme.

Williams didn’t take a tour of the country. He didn’t shop the process. He came to Eugene, saw the vision, and committed. That matters. It speaks to how Oregon is now viewed by defensive backs across the sport. This is where you come to be developed, to compete, and to be seen.

On the field, Williams brings what Oregon needs in the slot: quickness in short spaces, the ability to cover receivers who live in option routes, physicality in the run game, and the football IQ to survive in a defense that asks its nickel to do everything. He isn’t depth. He’s a plug-in starter, the kind that keeps a defense from scrambling to patch holes.

Iverson Hooks

Hooks doesn’t arrive with five-star pedigree or viral recruiting clips. He arrives with production.

After years of quiet seasons at UAB, he finally exploded, becoming the Blazers’ leading receiver with nearly a thousand yards and seven touchdowns. He’s 5-foot-10, 175 pounds, and built to live in the space where defenses are most uncomfortable: between the numbers, underneath coverage, where chains get moved.

Oregon missed that this season. Not just a receiver, but a specific type of receiver. A Tez Johnson-type. Someone who can make third-and-six feel manageable when everyone in the stadium knows you’re throwing. Hooks gives Oregon that back. He doesn’t replace Malik Benson’s vertical threat. He replaces the subtle efficiency that keeps drives alive and quarterbacks calm.

Every championship offense has one of those guys. Hooks is Oregon’s.

Michael Bennett

Bennett is the wild card, and maybe the most important.

Coming from Yale, there’s no easy way to project exactly what he’ll be against Big Ten edge rushers. Some see a tackle. Some see a guard. What everyone sees is a 310-pound, All-Ivy, FCS All-America-caliber lineman who has started, held up, and knows how to play grown-man football.

That matters more than upside when you’re trying to protect a quarterback with playoff expectations.

Oregon lost Isaiah World and Alex Harkey in one offseason. That’s a dangerous amount of experience to lose at tackle. Bennett steadies that. He allows Immanuel Iheanacho to grow without being rushed. It lets Tommy Tofi redshirt if needed. It gives A’lique Terry options instead of panic.

He may not be a star. But stars are useless if the floor collapses. Bennett keeps the floor intact.

What It All Means

This portal class wasn’t about headlines. It was about survival and ambition at the same time.

A quarterback with 22 starts.
The No. 1 safety in the portal.
A starting nickel.
A chain-moving receiver.
A veteran offensive lineman.

That’s not a spree. That’s the spine of a football team.

Oregon still has work to do on the defensive line and at linebacker, and that will come. But the core is set now. The middle of the roster, the part that decides whether a team bends or breaks in December, is built.

Dan Lanning didn’t just navigate portal season.

He won the part of it that actually matters.