The Duck Report is Sponsored By:

I told myself “no” on Kenyon Sadiq.

No way. Not going to happen. Not this year.

It was our fantasy football draft, and an important one — our year-to-year league is shifting to a dynasty format — which made the rookie draft about as important as they come. Find the right diamond in the rough and it could set your franchise (is that what we’re calling it?) up for years.

But here’s my issue: I’ve become an increasingly bad fantasy football player.

I’m mostly OK with that. My budget isn’t as reliant on a few hundred bucks in fantasy winnings to keep me off the streets, and it’s easy to explain my decline away with, “Well, I’m just too busy.”

That last part is true. I don’t study. I don’t listen to fantasy football podcasts. And what really gets me is that I don’t watch the NFL nearly as much as I used to.

So what often happens is I draft what I know, which in many cases amounts to: “Hey, I’ve seen that former Oregon Duck play. He could be good.”

This led to me taking Bucky Irving in the first round last year — he finished the year with 588 yards — and thinking I was being sneaky by using a pick on Dont’e Thornton Jr., who wasn’t even particularly notable during his time with the Ducks before becoming a weapon at Tennessee.

I didn’t make the playoffs. Again.

But with our league shifting to dynasty this year, I gave myself a rule:

No Ducks.

And I made it through the initial draft with my goal intact. But I also forgot we had another draft coming for rookies.

Tuesday night, I got a text from a friend that I was on the clock.

“You going to take Sadiq?”

He knew it was my thing. The league knew it was my thing.

And with the clock ticking down and a bead of sweat dripping from my forehead, I’m here to report that … I made it my thing again.

Sorry, Kenyon.

For both of our sakes, let’s hope my fortunes begin to turn around.

The answer to Oregon’s question

“Another reason I came back was because of him,” says Ducks quarterback Dante Moore (right), of tight end Jamari Johnson (middle). Credit: Tyson Alger

Jamari Johnson is not yet a finished product.

The Oregon tight end has work to do on the field, and while the player he’s set to succeed is off to the pros, Johnson is still very much a college athlete capable of providing very college-athlete quotes — like the possible overshare earlier this month about his quarterback’s digestive system that made the rounds. 

“He’s a jokester,” Dante Moore said. “I’m pretty sure everyone has heard recently what’s happened.”

Yes, the 6-foot-5, 255-pound senior is the quote-unquote replacement for Kenyon Sadiq, a freak athlete who caught 51 passes for 560 yards and eight touchdowns last season before the New York Jets selected him in the first round of the NFL Draft.

There are things Johnson is doing to mirror Sadiq, but his quarterback says Johnson is always just going to be himself — and that includes his off-the-field personality.

Plus, it’s not like he asked the question that set himself up.

“Questions need answers,” Johnson said. “And that’s what I’m here for.”

Brotherly shove

Jeremiah McClellan carries the ball against Brice Pollock of the Texas Tech Red Raiders during the first quarter in the Orange Bowl in Miami in January. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

Jeremiah McClellan is a grown man now — a 6-foot, 190-pound wide receiver not so easily pushed around by his older brother.

Long gone are the days when a 13-year-old Matt McClellan and his cousins would gang up on 6-year-old Jeremiah, leaving him in tears after games of Madden, or routinely beating him in living room games of “Moss,” where two players go up for one ball.

“We never gave him an age pass,” Matt McClellan said. “Whenever he did win, it was always because of something crazy, like he’s diving for the ball and hitting his head down there on the fireplace, and Mom is mad as hell. But that’s Jeremiah. He found out at a really young age that, hey, if I work hard, I’ll be better than you.”

Now Jeremiah is a junior receiver on the No. 2 Oregon Ducks. He played in all 15 games in 2025, making nine starts. A handful of his 38 catches were pulled off with the same degree of difficulty as those in the living room against relative giants.

He entered 2026 fall camp as a key piece of one of Oregon’s biggest strengths, a wide receiver group that includes Dakorien Moore, Evan Stewart and Iverson Hooks, a transfer from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

And while there’s only one ball to go around, Jeremiah’s mindset seems set on making the most of every opportunity.

The Traffic Report

Fall camp is over. Kickoff is a week away. And this week on The Traffic Report, Justin Myers and I dig into why college football in 2026 is as unpredictable as it gets. Watch the podcast in the player above, or find us on Apple or Spotify.

camera roll

Now where might this be? You’ll find out next week.

Were you forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here to receive The Duck Report every Thursday in your inbox.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The closer you get, the more excited you get, right? I mean, that’s human nature. You know, I always think about, are we prepared? Are we ready for that excitement that comes along with that? And I think our team’s close.”
— Oregon football coach Dan Lanning

UPCOMING GAMES

  • Volleyball vs. Western Kentucky • 4 p.m. • Friday 
  • Volleyball at Southeast Missouri • 4 p.m. • Saturday 
  • Volleyball at Missouri • 6 p.m. • Tuesday 

STORIES I’m WORKING ON

Ducks. Broncos. Week 1. 2026 is here.

The Duck Report is Sponsored By:

Do you have story ideas or tips? Send them my way — tyson@lookoutlocal.com.

Download the Lookout Eugene-Springfield app in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Our content isn’t possible without community support, so if you’re not already, please consider becoming a Lookout member.

See you at Autzen next week,

Tyson

Tyson Alger covered the Ducks for The Oregonian and The Athletic before branching out on his own to create and run The I-5 Corridor. He brings more than a decade of experience on the University of Oregon sports beat. He has covered everything from Marcus Mariota’s Heisman Trophy-winning season to the Ducks’ first year in the Big 10.