The Oregon Ducks finished the year with a 13-1 record and won the Big Ten in their inaugural season. That success is expected to translate to a successful NFL Draft season, where multiple Ducks will be waiting to hear their name called across the three-day event.
Among Oregon's expected draft picks is their star offensive tackle, Josh Conerly Jr. The 6-foot-5, 311-pound, prospect was recently projected to go in the first round in CBS Sports' Pete Prisco's 1.0 2025 NFL mock draft.
Prisco had Conerly falling to the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles with the 32nd pick in the first round. The veteran draft analyst has Conerly as the fifth tackle selected in the first round.
"They are set at tackle for now, but they can take the eventual replacement for Lane Johnson with this pick. Conerly is athletic and fits what the Eagles want in their linemen. They have most positions filled, so they can be patient and make this kind of move," Prisco said.
The latter half of the first round is right around where most draft experts have projected for Conerly to land. Conerly has also seen multiple projections placing him in the top half of the second round.
Philadelphia can do a lot of different things with the last pick in the first round, but taking Conerly wouldn't come as a surprise considering the low-risk, high-reward pick that he is.
The fit between the Eagles and Conerly is an easy one to identify. As Philadelphia gets older along the offensive line, particularly at the tackle position with Johnson being 34, Conerly wouldn't have to be forced out onto the field as a rookie. Instead, he would have the chance to learn and develop under the guidance of one of the best tackles duos in the league in Johnson and Jordan Mailata.
Lance Zierlein of NFL.com wrote that Conerly's rapid development this season makes his ceiling easy to project.
"Two-year starter whose in-season improvement and performance against Penn State’s Abdul Carter make it easier to project his future. He strains at the point of attack but needs to get his hips and hands synced to improve as a finisher. He moves easily in space...Conerly is young and needs more development, but he should become a good starter at tackle or guard," Zierlein said.
Conerly isn't the only Duck that is getting first-round love from draft experts. In his latest mock draft, Matt Miller of ESPN has Derrick Harmon getting selected with the 27th pick in the first round by the Baltimore Ravens.
The defensive lineman is in a similar situation with Conerly as his projections range anywhere from mid-to-late first round to top of the second round.
If both players are taken in the first round, it would be the first time Oregon has had two day one selections since the 2015 NFL Draft where Marcus Mariota and Arik Armstead both went in the first round.
