It’s not often that a team can lose both starters at a position and still feel confident. But don’t sleep on Oregon’s secondary, which lost 2024 starting duo Kobe Savage and Tysheem Johnson — yet looks ready to compete in 2025. Savage and Johnson provided remarkable stability last year, but both declared for the NFL Draft and left the Ducks without a starting safety.
Oregon, though, welcomes a stacked class that includes Purdue transfer Dillon Thieneman and blue-chip recruits Na’eem Offord and Trey McNutt. The Ducks returned exciting talent, too, including second-year athletes Aaron Flowers, Peyton Woodyard and Kingston Lopa. They’re more than ready to take the next step, and the program is confident in them, too.
Oregon head coach Dan Lanning called Thieneman “an unbelievable guy. He’s infatuated with football.”
“His work ethic is like no other guy I’ve ever coached,” Oregon co-defensive coordinator Chris Hampton said.
“His work ethic (impressed me),” redshirt-freshman safety Lopa said of Thieneman. “I’m not going to lie. I’ve never really played with somebody like him — just always ready to work, ready to find something new. He’s a good person too, outside of football.”
It’s clear that he has their trust, but he’s learning, too. Thieneman has spent this spring as both the field and boundary safety, he said — last year, those spots were covered by Johnson and Savage, both of whom declared for the 2025 NFL Draft ahead of spring ball.
Johnson started 13 games in 2024 — his second season at Oregon after transferring from Ole Miss. He led the Ducks in their Big Ten Championship win over Penn State with nine solo tackles. Savage, meanwhile, started 14 games in his lone season in Eugene. He finished third on the team with 64 total tackles — including three games where he led Oregon in the category.
The Ducks’ incoming safety class isn’t short of talent, either. Lanning hauled in four-star McNutt from Shaker Heights, Ohio, while also grabbing a commitment from five-star recruit Offord, who entered as a corner but could see time at safety. Both provide potential first-year upside after playing significant snaps in high-profile high school games.
McNutt stayed committed to Oregon after verbally agreeing in August 2024. He’s the No. 4 player in Ohio, per 247Sports, and the No. 4 safety nationally. He’s listed at 6’0’’ and 180 pounds (taller than both Johnson and Savage)
Offord, meanwhile, is 247Sports’ No. 1 player in Alabama (the 17th-best nationally), and checks in slightly larger than McNutt — 6’1’’ and 185 pounds. He was committed to Ohio State until December 2024, when he flipped to the Ducks — his half-brother, running back Makhi Hughes, also committed to Oregon out of the transfer portal from Tulane.
The depth chart gets even deeper with Oregon’s returning recruits. Flowers (two games played in 2024), Woodyard (14 games) and Lopa (six games) all look to take a second-year step with spots open in the defensive backfield.
“Our goals are really just to communicate across the board,” Lopa said after a spring practice. “We’re trying to get everybody to play fast. That’s what Lanning says a lot. Trying to get calls out as fast as we can and get everybody lining up faster.”
The redshirt freshman had high praise for McNutt, too, who he called, “a dude,” and said that he’s, “ahead of where a lot of freshmen were last year around this time.”
The depth chart is still undecided, so in the Spring Game, keep an eye on the pairings — who’s playing with who, which players get time and whether any players slide into a new position. Any way it’s mixed, the Ducks are set up to surprise.
